Hustle
by ms.reed92
Summary: Jensen has been the primary provider for her brothers and sister since she was twelve years old. Now she finds herself in Charming looking for a job, still trying to support her family. When she meets the Sons of Anarchy she thinks she could find a place for her family in the small town but making dreams reality isn't always smooth sailing. It's all about the hustle. Jax/OC.
1. Chapter 1

You can't help where you were born; at least that was what she was telling herself as she climbed back into the beat up station wagon. You can't help where you were born only where you go from there. It was a saying her father liked to throw out when he got involved with some scam that guaranteed to double his money, triple his money, or make him a millionaire over night. You would have thought that after twenty years of being duped he would come to his remaining senses and clean up his act, if for no other reason than to take care of his children, but he never did. The day Jensen turned twenty-one she packed up her few belongings and hightailed it on the first greyhound out of the rinky-dink town she had come to call home.

Four years later she had bounced from place to place and had worked every job she could talk her way into. She was a hustler and damn proud of it. How could she not be when she had to take care of her family starting at twelve years old? She was the oldest and she was the only one reliable enough to hold down an actual job. She taught herself to drive a car at thirteen because the closest place she could find work was in the county over where no one knew her real age, she wasn't tall enough to pass as eighteen but she was able to fudge her way up to sixteen and that was all she needed.

Every cent she earned went back to her brothers and sisters until her bother could find a job. Liam didn't blame his sister for leaving; he knew it was a long time in the works. He had acted like he didn't notice her squirrelling away small amounts of her pay cheque each month. He waited for her to tell him. When she finally did the look of sheer guilt on her face forced away any anger or resentment he might have had. His sister had taken care of all of them for nine years now it was his turn.

Jensen promised to send back what ever she could but they both knew there wouldn't be much to send back.

She hadn't seen her siblings after that day and missed them constantly. She had almost talked herself into going back; the only thing that stopped her was her father's words. She was convinced that he was on to something with his little saying he just hadn't found the way to move forward. Jensen picked up the battered phone she was using and dialled her brother's familiar number.

"Ugh 'llo." Came the slurred response.

"Morning brother!" She chirped into the phone mostly to annoy him. "Just checking everyone made it to school on time. How did Leo's doctor's appointment go? How are Russell and Cate? Did Russell get the job? Hank says hi." She sped through her questions just like she did every morning, chuckling slightly as she heard the dog bark from his crate at the mention of his name.

"Jen! Take a minute, Russell drove Cate to school and I made him promise he would go too."

"Russell should not be driving!" She scolded without much heart.

"Yeah, I seem to remember you driving us around everywhere when you were his age."

"I never crashed the car." She muttered while picking at her chipped nail polish.

"It was fine! Honestly, I was able to fix the car without even taking it in and the other sucker thought it was his fault and paid in cash for us to keep our mouths shut."

"That was luck! You can't expect that to happen every time."

"Either you want him to go to school or you want him to stop driving, you choose!" Liam shouted into the phone with a little more aggression then was strictly necessary.

"I'm sorry I even brought it up. I just called to let you know I'm moving again. I saw an ad for a job not far from here, bartending."

"Another titty bar?" he snorted "I'm sure that will go just great."

"My top was on the whole time I worked there! Besides I won't know what this place is like until I check it out."

"I don't really want to be talking about this." He muttered into the phone.

"Okay, so why is Leo not in school?" She questioned. "How did his appointment go?"

"Jen, he has the chicken pox. I'm not taking him to the doctor to tell me what I already know. We don't have the money for that kind of shit. I was up with him all night convincing him not to pick at the scabs and watching him puke."

Jensen let out a long sigh.

"You're a good boy. You know that?"

"Well I'm still here and that's a fair deal better than some."

"Ouch, that hurt. You know why I had to leave! I have made so much more money moving around like this than I ever could make there and I have sent it all to you!"

"Yeah but I'm the one cleaning Leo's puke off the kitchen floor."

"I'm sorry about that. I know it's not fair to you. Has dad stopped by recently?"

"He came by last week talking about some plan he has to make us all rich. I had the locks changed again."

"Yeah that's probably for the best. Look, I have to get going I have an interview at the bar today and I am so lost. Kiss the kids for me."

"No."

She heard the click telling her the line had been disconnected.

"Little shit-head!" he exclaimed to herself as she looked at the signs.

This town was further out than she expected. She had lied to Liam about why she was moving and for a minute felt bad about it but quickly squashed that feeling. She needed to move, she couldn't put her finger on it but the small town gave her a strange feeling that she couldn't put her finger on. She had literally moved across the country finding odd jobs and this was the only town where she had felt out of place. She intentionally avoided bigger cities after her first experience on her own.

Starting in Arkansas and moving to Texas, then on to Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada, before landing in a small town in Southern California. San Bernardino was hot and dying and the receptionist job she got at that chop shop paid bad money. She might have learned to look the other way but something didn't sit right with her about it all.

It took her twenty minutes at the local library to find another small town with more mom-and-pop places where she was likely to find a job. She packed and left that night and had drove non-stop for the past six hours. She thought she would be there by now but signs didn't indicate her being anywhere near a place called Charming. Finally she saw a sign claiming that Charming was twenty miles further north and she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. There was always something stressful about moving but knowing that her brother was closer to the breaking point then ever before only added to the stress. She needed a job fast.

When she saw the 'Welcome to Charming' sign she wanted to do a little dance. However her excitement quickly dissipated as she heard her car make an unusual thumping noise.

"No, no, no! Not here, come on baby just a little further." She pleaded as she felt the car slowing.

It came to a dead stop and all Jenson could do was drop her head to the steering wheel. She blindly fumbled for her phone as she proceeded to hit her head against the wheel.

She had no choice; she had to call her brother. He had done some work as a mechanic and had talked her though some car failures in the past, she only hoped he wasn't already at work.

"Jeez – two calls in one day? You must really miss us." Came her brother's cocky greeting.

"Hey Liam. So I have a problem," She paused as she thought about how to explain the situation. "So I made it into town but my car decided to stop. I was hoping you might be able to talk me through what's wrong."

"It just stopped?" He asked sounding tired.

"Yeah it made a loud thumping sound about ten times and slowed way down before just stopping." She explained as she got out and lifted the hood. "Jesus shit!" she exclaimed as steam billowed out in her face.

"That sounds like something more serious than you could take care of on the side of the road." He evaluated. "Sounds like your transmission is shot all to hell."

"Okay so that's bad. Is there anything I can do to just get me to a repair shop?" Jensen questioned as she leaned in to see the damage.

"You could always walk." He suggested unhelpfully.

"You're an ass!" She yelled.

"Just trying to be helpful."

"All right I guess I will just have to wait here until someone comes by." She muttered. "I mean I'm kinda out in the middle of absolutely no where and it's about 105 degrees."

"Okay, I gotta go Leo's hungry."

"Okay, hey you would tell me if you heard from mom right?" She questioned.

"You know I would. She hasn't been around since she dropped Leo on us. Why?" He asked suddenly curious as to her questioning.

"No reason I just wanted to make sure she wasn't bothering you guys." She lied smoothly.

"You would tell me if she contacted you right?" Liam grilled, still suspicious of her questions.

"Have I ever kept secrets from you?"

"Yes, all the time! That damned dog for one!" He exclaimed.

"Well that's in the past, I'm not now, besides Hanky loves you. Go feed Leo before he gets too cranky and tell him I love him." She smiled.

"Yeah, call me when you know about the job." He stated before ending the call.

So now she had to wait and pray that someone would drive past and take pity on her. She led Hank out of the back seat and on to the side of the road. He was the newest addition to her collection of things that came with her. The blue nosed pitbull was only a puppy and already she could tell he had as much fight in him as she had in her. He was so excited and curious about everything that he added some comic relief to her boring life. They sat by the car together as she absentmindedly scratched behind his floppy ears.

By the second hour she was giving up hope that anyone ever came this way and began debating if it was worth it to just start walking and hope she ran into someone. The only thing that stopped her was that she couldn't leave behind her belongings. Everything she owned was in that car and leaving it just didn't feel right. At the third hour the sun was high in the sky and causing beads of sweat to roll down her body. She had stripped to the least amount of clothing she could get away with and still felt as though it was suffocating her. She was beginning to regret her decision to wear the tan worn cowboy boots as she looked at the prospect of having to walk to find help.

"Stupid piece of shit car!" She yelled as she aimed a kick at the bumper. Hank let out a worried bark in unison with her exclamation.

She slung her oversized messenger bag over her shoulder and started walking away, pulling Hank, attached to his leash, along with her. Her long wavy hair was scooped up into a messy bun to cool her neck and her aviator sunglasses kept slipping of her nose because of the sweat. She had only been walking for a few minutes; she could still see her car behind her, when she heard a low rumble. Finally she thought her luck was turning around. Someone had come to save the day. She turned and ran back to her car, her thumb jutting out into the road.

"Hanky, we're saved!" She cried as she pulled the dog closer to her and eventually bent down to scoop him up.

Whatever car was making the noise had still yet to make it around the turn and at this point Jensen had lost all will to care what could have made the racket it was making and became more preoccupied with the prospect of air conditioning. Her heart sank when she saw just what she thought her angel was, motorcycles, five or six of them, all with big intimidating men on them.

She let out a huff in agitation, she highly doubted they would stop for her and even if they did they screamed danger. Jensen grabbed in her bag and took a calming breath when she felt the familiar grip of the gun beneath her fingers.

The men on the bikes drove right past her though she could see one of them turn his head to get a better look at her. She had given up all hope that someone else would come by and turned back glumly to her car.

"Hey! Do you need help or something?" A man's voice called from behind her.

Jensen spun around and looked at the man that matched the voice. Her eyes went wide as she took in the man talking to her. He was taller than her by at least six inches and his grey hair looked almost silver in the hot sun, everything about him screamed danger. She pushed her feelings down and cleared her throat trying to compensate for her obvious nervousness.

Hank did not like him, the dog started pulling at his leash and making loud growling noises before letting out one or two barks.

"Hey! Easy, Killer!" Jensen attempted to sooth as she pulled at his leash. "Yeah, I'm new to town and my car just decided to stop." She fumbled over her words slightly. "I was just looking for a ride to the closest repair shop, I tried calling the directory but they said they didn't have anything for Charming and I'm too far out of Oakland to get them to come here." She looked around him and saw all the others had stopped and were appraising her intently. "Do you think you could help me out?"

"You don't want this going to Oakland anyways, you'll never get it back." The man stated with a lecherous grin. "I own the only repair shop in town so I guess this is just your lucky day." He flashed another smile.

"I suppose so. I'm sorry I don't think I caught your name. I'm Jensen and this is Hank." She stuck out her hand.

"The name's Clay." He responded after regarding hank for a moment. "I can call the tow truck for you. If you want to hitch a ride back with one of us you will have to ask one of the others." He offered with a shrug.

"What's stopping you from giving me a lift?" She shot back with her eyebrows raised almost into her hairline. Not that she would take the ride anyways because of Hank.

"I make it a point not to give rides to women when their dog so blatantly don't like me." He opened up his arms and made a sweeping gesture at the rest of them.

"See any you like?" he chortled as he walked away pressing a phone to his ear.

Her eyes glanced over all of them and her stomach did little flips as she looked at the men. They were not the kind of guys you brought home to your parents; one had two tribal tattoos on his head with a Mohawk dividing them. Next to him was a large man with thick, matted curly hair that reached just to his shoulders. He looked somewhat familiar to her and caused her to raise her glasses to get a better look.

"Hey I know you!" She exclaimed as she walked over to him pulling the reluctant dog with her. The man looked bewildered as she let out a laugh. "I guess you don't remember me. I did a season in Tahoe last summer at Harvey's, you were Elvis!" She giggled as she picked up Hank and talked directly to the dog. "Hanky, this is the man that paid for you."

She heard wolf whistles behind her and looked around at a middle-aged man with electric green eyes.

"Way to go, Bobby! How far gone did you have to be to forget paying for some chick's bitch?" The man barked out.

Jensen decided to ignore their comments for now.

"I was yo ur waitress that evening. You were dressed like Elvis and at the end of the night you tipped me two hundred dollars." She explained with a faltering smile as it became clear that the man had no idea who she was. "Maybe that's just normal for you or something." She paused as she saw Bobby raise his hands to his throat indicating for her to stop talking.

"On a waitress?" The green eyed man called out again. "Oh brother! I could have directed you to a better location to spend that kind of money!" he crowed as he thumped on his bike with a leather-clad hand.

Jensen rolled her eyes but kept her attention on the grey haired fat man.

"So, you remember me now? Jensen, and I assume you're Bobby?" She held out her hand.

"It's nice to meet you, again." Bobby chuckled. "I'd give you a ride but I don't do dogs." He looked at hank with suspicion.

Jensen let out a laugh.

"That's okay he doesn't do bikes, the noise freaks him out." She shrugged. "I'll just wait till the tow truck comes, thanks for the offer."

"The prospect is on his way in the truck. Juice, you stay here with them and make sure he doesn't open his trap about anything important." Clay barked, earning a growl from Hank. "Miss. Jensen, it was a pleasure meeting you."

"On it boss." Just responded with a slightly dejected look.

"And you as well." She plastered on a false smile and waved her goodbyes to the group.

The one named Juice watched rather forlornly as his friends rode off without him.

"Don't look so glum, or is this some sort of twisted punishment for you?" She snorted as she leaned back on the car door.

He ignored her as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes and plucked one in his mouth before fumbling around for a light.

"Here, I got ya." Jensen held out the cheap silver lighter with an image of a unicorn and rainbow on it.

"Classy." He finally muttered as he took the light.

"Oh yeah because the head tattoos and leather kutte really scream black tie." She bit back as she took in his appearance. "What is the Sons of Anarchy anyways?" She pointed at the reaper on his back. "Bunch of devil worshipers?"

"Just a group of underpaid mechanics with a deep love of motorcycles." He shook his head before offering her a cigarette, which she gladly accepted.

"Right." She choked out unbelievingly. "So are you going to tell me your real name? Unless your mother hated you almost as much as mine hated me, I doubt your given name is Juice."

"You gonna tell me yours first?" He looked sideways at her as he sidled up to lean against the car as well.

"Jensen O'Halloran, at your service." She stood back and have him a short bow before returning to her spot.

"You gotta be shitin' me! You're Irish." He exclaimed with raised eyebrows.

"Yes Sir, on my Daddy's side. If you listen to half the crap my father says my grandfather had ties to the Real IRA. But if you listen to half the crap my father says you're being had half the time." She rolled her eyes.

"Where's your red hair?" he laughed though she noticed him tense slightly at the mention of the IRA.

"Why aren't you making me a burrito?" She snapped back with a light nudge of her elbow.

She reluctantly moved off of her comfortable resting place to open the car door and grab a book from the back seat. Her movements caused her worn tee to ride up exposing the scar that ran across her stomach at the navel and up the centre to her chest. The words 'devil's choice' tattooed along the right side of the scar.

"What's the ink?" He asked as his hands pulled her shirt up further to inspect the tattoo.

He saw that it spanned much further than the words above her hip. In the centre of her chest where the three surgical scars met was an image of an angel with a sword.

"Hey buddy, hands off!" She protested by roughly pulling the fabric down again. "If you want to know my secrets you have to buy my dinner first."

"Never seen angels do that before." He chuckled. "Come on tell me. I'll show you mine if you tell me about yours." He bargained.

"You greatly over estimate my interest in you." She snorted.

"Fine if you won't tell me about the ink at least tell me what the book is for." He conceded.

She wordlessly held up the leather bound book to show him the title.

"Time for a little religion?" He asked with the hint of a smile playing on his lips. "Better watch it, your Irish is showing."

Jensen could barely contain her snort as she just shook her head as she flipped through the bible with her thumb. She stopped about halfway through and displayed a crisp hundred-dollar bill.

"Never keep all your money in one place. Besides, damn book has to be worth something. Trust me the only Irish thing that shows on me is my ability to drink copious amounts of whiskey." She stated with a smirk.

"My mistake. There's the truck, we'll just hook you up and get you into town. We probably have a beater you can use while we fix yours. Hell it might even be better than the piece of crap you're driving." He explained as he began hooking her car to the truck.

"Jensen, this is Kip, Kip knows to keep the small talk focused on the car." Juice introduced when he saw her eyes flash towards the skinny blond man running out from the cab of the truck. "I'll be just behind you."

"So where are you coming from?" Kip asked as he offered his hand out. "Oh and who is this beauty?" He exclaimed as he knelt down to scratch behind Hank's ears.

Hank took the action to mean that Kip wanted to play and quickly pounced on the crouched man, knocking him to the pavement and smothering him in slobber. Jensen immediately reacted by pulling hank off of him.

"Down hanky! Bad hanky!" She scolded the dog. "I'm sorry about that, he just loves people. I was born and raised in Ohio but most recently I was living in San Bernardino. And this guy is Hank and Hank is very sorry."

"Ah that's fine! I love dogs." He waved a hand to dismiss the whole thing. "So Ohio?"

Jensen was going to continue the conversation they started when Juice made a disgruntled coughing sound from his bike.

"Someone's ready to go." Jensen rolled her eyes. "He's pushy that one."

The ride to the repair shop was uneventful and as Juice had warned small talk was focused on the car.

"What the hell is that?" Jensen exclaimed as she exited the cab of the truck. "Californians, I tell you! You aren't supposed to let the deer charge at you like that!" She laughed as she saw the dear lodged in the windshield of an old Honda.

"Yeah, I'm still not sure how I'm gonna get that one out." Kip rubbed the back of his head, squinting slightly as if he was thinking hard about it. "I'll ask one of the guys how they want me to take care of it."

"Only one thing you can do." Jensen snorted as she walked closer to the car. "Gotta cut the poor sucker out. You scrapping this for parts or hoping to salvage it?"

"Ah parts most likely. Deer did a real number on the hood." Kip responded after a moment hesitation.

Jensen nodded as she looked at the car, not completely oblivious to the stares she was getting from every man on the lot.

"You guys got a chainsaw around here? I'll cut it out for you." She offered, hoping a little good will would nock a few bucks off the bill she was looking at for her car.

"You sure?" Kip asked looking around nervously. "I mean all the blood, it doesn't bother you?"

"Nah, my first job was mopping the floors at the butcher's. If I could handle it when I was twelve I can handle it now." She placed a good-natured thump on his back.

"Alright I suppose. Let me just get the chainsaw." He muttered as he walked away.

"Hanky I need you to be a good boy and stay here." She lectured as she tied his collar around the pole supporting the overhang.

She looked around and saw a stray chair a few feet away and dragged it over, plopping her bag down on the seat. She walked back to the car and walked around it before opening up the driver's door to get a better look at the deer's head.

"Uh, here." Kip handed her a beaten up chainsaw with multiple stickers on it.

"I assume that's not the Oakland A's you all are referring to." She chuckled as she pointed out the largest and apparently oldest sticker of the bunch.

"No ma'am." He chuckled.

"Oh a knife to the heart!" She exclaimed as she dramatically gripped her chest. "Ma'am? Really? Do I look like a ma'am to you?"

"No ma'am! I mean no, not at all." He fumbled for words.

"Good, the only person I let call me ma'am is the lady at the DMV." She smiled. "Now back up and let's see what this bad boy can do!" She let out a rough laugh and rested her glasses back down on her nose.

Blood was everywhere. Jensen's light wash shorts were covered in blood splatter and her white tee was spotted with red. She could feel the thick substance setting in her hair and on her face. It took a little over thirty minutes and an entire audience for her to remove the deer entirely from the window but when she did she was met with a round of applause from Kip.

"This is for you." She pulled the head out of the car and dumped it unceremoniously on the ground. "Ugh, my boots!" she exclaimed as she saw the worn leather was soaked in blood.

"Impressive. Can I get you a beer or something?" Kip offered as he kicked the carcass to the side.

"I never turn down a drink." Jensen nodded.

She waited for Kip's back to turn completely before she jogged lightly back to Hank.

"How's my baby?" she cooed affectionately to the puppy. "Eww! Hank, no, don't do that! Yucky, blood is yucky! Don't lick my face!" she protested as the dog went berserk with the smell of blood. "Well, Killer, you got your first taste of blood. How was it?" She questioned.

Hank let out a growl followed by a solitary bark, as if to answer her question. She felt a shadow fall on her back and assumed it was Kip with her beer.

"It took you long enough!" she exclaimed still paying full attention to her dog. "Thought maybe you went to Germany for those beers." She finally turned around. "Shit! You are not who I though you were!" She took a step back.

A blond man with shoulder length hair and bright blue eyes glared back at her.

"You're the girl we picked up on the side of the road." He stated. "I saw you with the deer."

"It's nice to meet you too, I'm Jensen O'Halloran. Yes, I helped get that dear out of the windshield." She nodded and held her hand out for him to shake.

He didn't take her hand; instead he looked down at it appraisingly before walking over to a nearby picnic table. She retracted her hand and awkwardly stuffed it into her back pocket before following him over to the table.

"So, you gonna grace me with a name?" She asked as she plopped next to him facing the opposite direction so that her back was facing the wall.

"Jax." He finally stated with a small smirk.

"I used to play that game when I was little. Not as much fun as the ads made it out to be." She sighed desperately wishing she had a cigarette so that her hands were occupied.

He let out a bark of a laugh.

"It's short for Jackson, it's not about the game. Trust me I'm more fun then the ads make me out to be."

She rolled her eyes; he thought he was God's gift to women and judging off the quality of pickup lines he never had to try very hard.

"Well, Jackson, did you come over to ask me something or just play a bad pick up line?"

"You just looked lonely." She could practically feel the shrug in his words.

She saw Kip walking up to them carrying two beers. She smiled and gave him a small wave, which he tried to return but ended up sloshing a small amount of beer on himself.

"Hey Kip! Thanks for the drink." She smiled as she patted the table. "Come drink with me, take a load off."

It looked like he was about to accept when Jax spoke up.

"Prospect has work to do." Jax stated before reaching up and grabbing the remaining beer out of his hand and pointing at a grey building.

Kip looked deflated but accepted Jax word without argument. He gave Jensen an apologetic smile before walking off towards the building Jax indicated.

"Oh, Knucklebones! That was not very nice of you!" She scolded without much power behind it.

"Knucklebones?" He asked a little taken aback.

"It's what my grandfather called jacks." She smirked before taking a swig of her beer.

"Alright, Miss O'Halloran, I like it. It sounds pretty badass." He finally responded.

"Yeah until you realise it's just a sheep's ankle." She quipped with a smile.

He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and offered her one. She nodded her head in thanks, grateful for something to do to distract herself from her own mind.

"So what are you waiting for?" He asked as they continued to sit there.

"Honestly I'm not sure. Juice disappeared with my car to see what was wrong with it. I guess if he can't fix it I'll need to get to a rental car place. He mentioned having a beater I could use." She shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me I don't have anywhere better to be."

He just nodded along with her story and they sat there in a semi-comfortable silence.


	2. Chapter 2

"Well I've got good news and bad news." Juice finally declared as he stepped out of the garage wiping his hands on a greasy cloth. He made his way over to Jensen and Jax shaking his head a little.

"Lay it on me I can take it." Jensen nodded as she ran through the worst possible situations she could think of in her head.

"Well the good news it I figured out the problem, the bad news is at this point it's going to cost more to fix it then it is to get another car. Unless you have some pretty amazing insurance I doubt it's really worth it." He explained as he took a seat.

"Do I look like the kinda gal that has any insurance? Hell I barely had gas money." She huffed.

"Don't bother fixing it, I'll buy another. Just bill me what I owe you now and if you could get me the number for a cab that would be nice." She grumbled as she dropped her head in her hands.

This was going to cost her all of the money she had saved and she didn't even have an apartment. Juice just nodded his head and made to move away when he caught Jax's gaze.

"This one is on the Sons, think of it as a welcoming present." He smirked as he saw relief wash over her face but then morph into confusion and suspicion.

"What's the catch?" She questioned with a cocked eyebrow.

"No catch, the club likes to welcome new people to the community." He shrugged, his blue eyes seemingly boring into her skin.

"Well thanks, I suppose. You know if this is your way of assuring that I look the other way when something shady goes down you are wasting your time. I have never called the police in my life, and I have probably seen enough shit that I should have, but I'm not about to start now, Mister 'Man of Mayhem'." She gestured at the patch on his chest. She might not know exactly what it meant but she didn't have to be a genius to figure out it implied trouble.

"This is just a little good will, Darlin'. If I needed you to look the other way about something you would know." He finally responded after coming out of his shock from her statement. "As for taxis, they don't come around here. If you want a ride to the rental place I could give you a lift, or I could take you to the best place for a used car. The owner is a friend of the club."

Now it was Jensen's turn to be shocked, the man had sat next to her for the better part of an hour and had said almost nothing but now he was offering her rides and acting like he gave a fuck? She determined that he must have some sort of medical condition or something to be acting like that.

"Alright, Knucklebones," She responded forgetting Juice was there watching the interaction with mild curiosity and amusement. "But someone has to watch Hank while I'm gone."

"I can do that no sweat." Kip called as he walked up to the group.

"Thanks, just remember he's already had the taste of blood." She smiled up at him before standing up from the table. "I have to get some things out of the trunk before I can go." She looked around at Juice expectantly.

"Just follow me." He pointed towards the garage. "So what do you need?" Juice asked as he made his way over to her car and opening the trunk.

"A girl has to have some secrets doesn't she?" She asked as she looked around at the other mechanics working on cars.

One had large scars running down both sides of his face and was focused on her intently as she passed by the motorcycle he was working on. She would never openly admit that his intensity gave her the heebie-jeebies but she could not help the shiver that ran through her.

"You have plenty of secrets to keep you interesting." Juice retorted, not noticing her distraction.

"Fine, I'm grabbing the rest of the cash I have hidden in the car." She blurted with a bluntness her mother would have criticized her for.

"How much more do you have tucked away in there?" He asked with wide eyes as he turned back to her.

"Well I don't trust the banks to keep my money safe and even if I did they would just want to tax me on it so I keep it on me or in the car at all times." She explained as she picked up a screwdriver that was lying on a table by her car. "At the time I had a mechanic for a brother so he taught me some nice hiding places."

She sat down on the concrete floor and opened the backseat door. Jensen roughly pulled up on the plastic panel on the door, using the screwdriver as leverage. She heard a pop and felt the panel loosen from the frame. She reached her hand in and pulled out a thick wad of twenty dollar-bills. She hoisted herself up and moved to the trunk and pulled the panel away in a similar fashion. Jensen reached her into the gap between the panel and metal and felt for the plastic bag she had taped in place. Giving it a rough yank she felt it come loose in her hand. Opening the bag she pulled out another stack of money.

"Well that should do it for now, I'll be back for the rest of my stuff later." She gave a small wave.

"Oh yea' tha' girl is definitely Irish." The man with the scars whispered to someone else in the room.

At those words Jensen spun around as if on casters, laughing at the statement.

"Boys! Of all the things you chose not to believe of me, that? Really? I mean I can understand someone lying about not being Irish, but who in their right minds makes that shit up? Besides hiding money like that has less to do with my blood and more to do with my parents." She snorted as she continued to walk away.

"Yup, pure leprechaun that one." He let out a laugh as she made a vulgar gesture in his direction.

"You ready to go?" She asked Jax as she made her way back to the table, picking up her bag.

"You gonna go like that?" He questioned with a raised eyebrow.

She looked down at her clothing and understood what he meant. She was covered in blood from head to toe.

"Yeah, my other clothes are packed up in boxes. A little blood doesn't freak you out does it, Knucklebones?" She smirked at him.

"Hey if it doesn't bother you, it sure as hell doesn't bother me." He gave her a lopsided smirk that she was sure he used to make girls' panties drop.

She cocked an eyebrow and looked down at her bag making sure she still had all her belongings. Her blood ran cold. The gun was gone. She told herself not to panic as she looked again it wasn't in the bag. She looked on the ground without much hope.

"What are you looking for?" Jax questioned with slightly too much innocence.

"Give it back." She tried her hardest to maintain her cool; she did not want to bite the hand that was currently feeding her.

"What are you talking about?" he cocked his head to the side and furrowed his brow like he was genuinely confused.

"Don't play games with me Jax. I want it back now!" She hollered garnering the attention of every man in the garage. "I am asking you nicely." She slipped the pocketknife open with her hand still in her bag, just as a precaution.

"What, this?" he asked with a saccharine tone. To her horror she saw Jax hold up the pistol. "You know I don't usually make a habit of going through a woman's purse. But when it sticks out of the top, that's not really going through it, is it?"

"It's still bad manners to take things that aren't yours." Jensen snapped though her face had gone as white as a sheet. "Could you kindly give it back?" She took a small comfort in the fact that he wasn't pointing it at her.

"I just want to know why you feel you need to carry it around." He asked with genuine curiosity etched on his face. "Hell, do you even know how to use this thing?" he placed the gun down on the table and pushed it towards her. "That's a pretty big calibre for a little thing like you."

She pulled the 9mm hi-power browning towards her and checked the safety before shoving it back in her bag with a disgruntled huff.

"I was taught by a big man. Are you going to take me to get a car now?"

"As soon as you tell me why you need a gun like that." He remained sitting, keeping his cool façade all the while.

"I've seen a lot of shit and I never call the cops." She shrugged as if that explained everything.

"You know what your doing with it?" he asked.

"Yes." She bit out.

"Is it legal?"

She could lie and say that it was but preferred to stay as honest as possible. "No, even if I filled out a permit for it they would never approve it. The magazine's too large." She shrugged.

"How'd you get it?"

"I knew a guy in Reno. Are we done with twenty questions?" Jensen snapped.

"Yeah, I guess we are, let's get your car." He suddenly broke out in a smile. As he stood up he casually flipped open his kutte and displayed the very same gun. "Birds of a feather." He murmured as he swaggered over to his bike.

"Boy do I know how to pick em!" She muttered to herself as she watched him walk away. She could no longer hide from herself that, in the short time she had talked with Jax, she had developed a small crush. She turned back to look at the men still staring at her from the doors of the garage. "What?" she demanded with a bit more force than she needed to. She finally moved off to meet up with Jax and pushed the feelings out of her head.

"Ever ridden on a bike before?" He asked as he handed her a helmet.

"Yeah, once or twice." Jensen revealed. "My ex thought he was a badass on a bike."

"Oh yeah? How did that end up?" He asked with a laugh and a small frown as he questioned why he even asked.

She paused to think of a word that best described the end of her relationship with Finn.

"Messy, he laid down his bike on the shoulder of the freeway and broke his leg in three places. I left while he was still in the hospital so that he couldn't follow after me." She finally sighed as she straddled the back of the bike and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"If you think riding on the back of some newbie's bike is the same thing as riding with me you have another thing coming." He chuckled.

He was right. Riding with Jax was a totally different beast to riding with Finn. He was faster and more reckless then Finn but Jensen had never felt even a fraction as safe. She could tell Jax knew what he was doing and she was reaping the benefits.

The used car lot was about ten minutes away from the repair shop and when they got there Jensen knew her hair was a wind swept mess and guessed her cheeks were stained a dark crimson that she blamed on adrenaline. She wordlessly hopped off the bike and handed back the helmet she had borrowed.

"So was I better?" He asked with a smirk already knowing the answer.

"Tisk, tisk. Big heads make for empty beds." She shook her head and looked around the lot.

A balding portly man was rushing over to them with a thin layer of sweat glistening on his brow. He reached into his pocket and dabbed at the perspiration before holding out his hands in welcome.

"Ah, Mister Teller! What can I do for the Sons today?" He questioned with a nervous glance around at Jensen.

"Harvey! I'm just helping my friend find a new car and making sure she gets a good deal." Jax smiled as he placed a hand on the man's shoulder.

Jensen saw the man visibly pale when Jax's hand clapped down on his shoulder.

"Of course! Any friend of the Sons is a friend of Harvey's!" Jensen had to roll her eyes, she hated when men talked in the third person. "So what are you looking for?" Harvey continued as if he didn't notice her annoyance. "Miss?"

"O'Halloran." She responded realising he was looking for her name. "I think I want something that runs and won't break the bank, I'm not picky about anything else."

"Well the hybrids gets great mileage and I am sure we can work out a reasonable deal." His eye shifted to Jax then back to her.

"What kind of deal are we talking here?" She questioned. Her eyes narrowed on the round man.

Harvey took her question for interest and turned around, leading them to a line of cars all marked heavily with window paint advertising their prices. He pointed over at a silver four door.

"It has 250,000 miles on it, runs like a charm. I have it listed for six grand but for a friend I can go to four." He smiled hoping she would return the gesture.

She had that much but refused to pay it. She walked up to the car and looked around, peering in the windows before checking the tread on the tire.

"Can I take it for a test ride?" she called over at the two men still standing a ways away.

"Of course! Let me get the keys." Harvey fumbled for a bit before walking away.

She motioned over to Jax.

"What do you think? Wanna see if I can get him lower?" she smirked.

"You think you can?" he chuckled as he scratched at his chin.

"I know I can. Watch." She turned back to see Harvey waddling back up to them with the keys.

The test drive was predictable and the car did run as well has Harvey had claimed. But Jensen wasn't willing to let go on the idea that she could get him as low as three grand if she played her cards right.

"Would it be possible to see this up on the lift?" she asked her eyes wide and innocent.

Harvey spluttered, clearly he hadn't been expecting that sort of question from her.

"Sure, sure!" he responded after a moment. "I can assure you everything is in good order here."

"I'm sure it is, this is really more about my own peace of mind, I'm sure you understand." She reached out and ran a hand down his arm.

"Of course." He smiled back before wiping his brow again.

With the car up on the lift Jensen knew it was time to strike. She took a quick look for rust before turning back to Harvey and Jax.

"I'll give you two and a quarter for it." She shrugged. "I'm not crazy over the colour and there's some minor repairs that have to be addressed." She stated as she wiped her hands on her back pockets, knowing the blood that stained her clothing made her look more dangerous than she actually was. "All cash." She added knowing that would sweeten the pot.

"I can't do that. No, I'm sorry, no. Three and a half is a low as I can go." Harvey exclaimed with a nervous glance at both of them.

"Look, Harvey, you're a reasonable man I'm a reasonable woman, I am sure we can come to some agreement. Now three is the highest I can go and I think we both know that is being more than generous." Jensen shook her head trying to seem apologetic and not ecstatic.

Harvey looked torn as he thought about Jensen's offer. With a final look at Jax he shook his head.

"You drive a hard bargain Miss O'Halloran." He held out his hand. "Three grand it is. Let's get those papers drawn up."

As she moved with him towards his office she saw Jax stop and answer his phone. He let out several expletives before slamming the phone shut. He jogged back to them and ran a hand over his face.

"I have to go my ex-wife is in the hospital, she's six months pregnant." He explained in a rush. "Harvey it was good to see you again, make sure you take good care of our friend here." He called as he started back to his bike.

"Jax, I'm so sorry is there anything I can do?" she asked unsure why she felt some connection to the guy.

"This is something I need to take care of on my own. Stop by the shop when you're done here the prospect will help you with your stuff." She nodded and watched him speed of even faster than he had come in.

She heard Harvey's small cough behind her and moved to follow him into the building.

Thirty minutes later she walked out of the office with the keys to her new car and only a fraction of her cash gone. She drove around the small town a little before heading back for her stuff. She saw a sign for a bartending position outside of a dive bar named "The Hairy Dog" and decided to give it a try. She had been decent at bartending the past couple times and the tips were always good.

She walked inside and saw a group of tall, skinny, heavily tattooed men playing a game of pool. She noticed their tattoos and took a small step back. The bald man had a swastika printed across his collarbone. The others all had similar Nazi symbols placed along their exposed bodies.

"Shit!" she muttered to herself and made to turn away. She needed the money but not Nazi money.

"Hey, doll face can I help you with something?" the bartender called out as he saw her in the doorway.

His words caused everyone in the room to look at her. She took a large gulp of air and figured it was too late to turn back now.

"Yeah I just saw the sign in your window about needing another bartender and figured I would submit my application."

"You come to work dressed like that?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "Cause I'll be honest with you some of our patrons might actually like that."

"Not on a usual day no. I had to help a friend with a deer accident this afternoon." She explained. "Look I have two years experience and I had the quickest and most accurate pours of all the people I worked with. I'm good with people; so good they don't know I don't like them. I work hard and I ain't afraid of the patrons which is probably more than most girls can say." She finished her rant with a little breath and raised her eyebrow.

She moved closer to the bar before meeting the bartender's eye. It looked like he was about to respond when a group of men burst through the door. Jensen instinctively backed away from the men until she recognised the leather and tattoos. She just could not get away from these people, she thought with a huff.

She saw Jax grabbing a pool cue and beating the man at the pool table over the head yelling about how he sold crank to his pregnant ex. Jensen let out a small yelp as she saw guns being drawn, one landed directly on the bartender. It was the man with the scars, she saw his eyes go wide as he recognised her.

She heard a scream of pain come from the man on the floor and looked around. The sight almost made her loose her cookies.

"Holy Mary, Mother of God!" She exclaimed causing Jax to wheel around on her.

"What are you doing here?" he barked, his eyes turned steely as he looked at Jensen.

"Applying for a job." She stated with a shrug. "Need to eat to live." Though the thought of eating now made her want to be sick.

"She retracts her application." The man with the scars and the accent called as Jax toted her out of the filthy bar.

"What do you think you are fucking doing? You aren't my keeper, Jax Teller! I can work wherever I damn well please!" she yelled as she threw herself against his grasp.

"This is what you want? You want to work for Nazis? They're criminals!" He shouted back at her.

"Does that make their money less green?" she snapped. "I have a family to feed, I need a job. That was a job, one I almost had in the bag!" She looked around at the group for an understanding face.

"I'll get you a job. You don't work for Nazis." Jax almost growled.

"Fine! You better come through for me on that job." Jensen ground out in a similar tone.

She was unwilling to admit that she was a little thankful not to be working around drug dealing white supremacists. She turned on her heal and walked back to her car, forgetting that they were headed to the same place.

She stormed over to her car the minute she made it into the lot and started grabbing boxes from the back and stuffed them into the boot of her new car. She felt a shadow on her but decided speed was of more importance than telling whomever it was to mind their own business.

When she felt a pressure on her shoulder the calm façade, she was working on maintaining, broke. She grabbed the offending hand and spun around, grabbing in her bag for her gun. She already had it pointed at the guy by the time she realised who he was.

"Shit! Kip!" She exclaimed as she saw his eyes go wide and raise his hands. "I could have blown your head off! I'm sorry, I didn't know it was you." She apologised as she lowered the gun and returned it to her bag.

"I just came over to see if you needed any help moving Hank's crate." He explained with his hands still raised.

"Yeah, that would be nice. I'm sorry about my reaction I guess I'm just a little on edge." She shrank in on herself, trying to appear more approachable.

Jensen felt a sharp tug on the collar of her shirt and was dragged away by a pair of strong hands before she could react. She looked up and met Jax's cold stare.

"And just what makes you think you have the right to push me around like that?" She demanded with a glare.

"You just pulled a gun on one of my guys and you are yelling at me?" He questioned with a raised eyebrow but his voice was as calm as usual. As if he had not just impaled a man with a pool cue.

"Sorry I'm a little on edge. Some guy just blasted into this bar I was thinking about working in and pointed a gun at me." She rolled her eyes as she saw his smirk.

"I didn't point a gun at you. And if you know what that man did you would be a little less shocked by my actions." He ran a hand through his hair finally letting his emotions show. Mostly he just looked tired.

"I heard I'm sorry. Is the baby...?" Jensen trailed off not wanting to say the words.

"Ten weeks premature, insides all backwards. Doctor says there's a twenty per cent chance that he lives." His tired eyes looked down at his hands.

"A chance is better than none. I'm so sorry. The mother is a louse for doing that to her child." Jensen absentmindedly rubbed her hand along his arm. "My mother was the same, only it wasn't crank she just drank a lot. My youngest brother had it the worst; at least with the rest of us she tired to stay sober. Why aren't you there with him now?" Her voice softened and her anger at him dissipated.

"I can't, I can't look at him. Knowing he could die, knowing that he probably will die, I can't. My Mom's with him." He muttered still looking down at his fists.

"What's his name?" she asked.

"Abel." He said his sons name in a whisper.

"Well Abel is lucky to have a dad that would skewer a man for him, I know plenty that wouldn't bat an eyelash." She nudged his arm. "I don't know you well enough to tell you what to do, but I will say that you have a lot of complex shit on your plate and right now and Abel is the one thing in all of this that should be simple. I am going to go back to packing my car because now I have wasted a day and I don't have a job or a place to stay." She moved around him and back to her car.

Most of the stuff had been packed into the functioning car and Hank's crate had been moved to sit comfortably in the back.

"Did you move all of this stuff?" She asked Kip as she looked at what was left for her to do.

"Yeah, you were talking so I figured I would just lend a hand." Kip smiled. "A thank you for the deer."

"I thought the beer was a thank you for the deer?" She laughed.

"Ah, you saved me from a lot of work. Just between us, I don't think my stomach could have handled it. I'm a vegetarian." He winked.

"I think you are looking to join the wrong club if you're a vegetarian, because what I just saw is going to put me off meatballs for the next month." She shook her head. "Do you know the cheapest place to rent a room in this town? I'll take anything, I really am not picky at all."

"There's a place about a mile outside of the centre of town called the Camelot, it rents by the hour." He itched the back of his head looking down at his feet.

"Hell at this point I'll take anything with a bed." She smiled and waved as she pulled Hank into his crate.

With her car packed she pulled out of the lot and headed down the street in the direction Kip had indicated. When she finally pulled up to the run down motel she let out a large sigh, it was worse than she had imagined but not the worst she had stayed in. The cheap fluorescent sign flashed from the street, spelling out Camelot and advertising their low hourly rates.

The skinny man behind the counter looked strung out on his drug of choice, his greasy hair slicked back on his head and the sweat stained singlet reeking of fish. Jensen barely maintained her impassive face as she asked for a room.

"How long?" the man leered at her with sunken eyes.

"A week." She spit out with her lips turned down in distaste.

"A hundred and fifty." He laughed. "We don't get a lot of pretty girls in here looking to stay long term."

"Well there is always a first." She smiled, barely hiding her distaste.

He handed her a set of keys, purposefully touching her hands.

"Well if you need anything my door is always open." He flashed a smile, showing her a set of yellowish teeth.

She smiled for lack of other things to do and walked out of the office.

"Come on, Hanky, this is us." She panted as she hauled a box full of clothes; her beaten suitcase and the dog up a flight of stairs and down a damp smelling walk way.

She opened the door and was assaulted with a smell of mould. She ignored it as she dropped the suitcase on the bed pulled out a blanket for Hank.

"There you go, baby! Who's a good boy? Huh? Who's a good boy?" She cooed from the bed. She pulled out her pocketknife and sliced one side of the tape on the box. "Shit!" she cried as she looked down at her hand. She had sliced it open in her rush. "God damnit! I can not catch a break!" She cried as she wrapped an old shirt around her palm and pressed hard.

Jensen plopped down on the bed and pulled her injured hand above her head. Twenty minutes later the bleeding had yet to stop and she was beginning to feel lightheaded. She pulled her bag closer to her and began rummaging around for the superglue. She let out a hiss as she pressed a small amount into her slice. The bleeding didn't stop. Jensen's hand was too slick with blood for the glue to stick.

"ER I need to get to the ER." She muttered. "Crap, crap, crap!" She kept saying as she slung her bag over uninjured shoulder. "Hank, come on." She called as she tugged on his leash.

She clambered back into her car and took back off into town. She needed to search a little for the hospital but once she found it she realised it was almost impossible to miss.

Jensen walked up to the nurse behind the counter and smiled.

"Hi, hoping you could help me. I had a small incident with a knife and sliced my hand pretty bad." She tried to give her friendliest smile but had a feeling that she came off more manic.

"Oh dear." The motherly red head let out a gasp as she took in the sight of the bloodied band tee Jensen was using as a rag. "Well sweet heart what's your name? I can get you in to see the doctor as soon as possible."

"Thanks ma'am. My name is Jenny Holdson." She stated as she remembered the name on her fake identification card.

She couldn't afford medical bills right now and just needed a break, if one wasn't presented to her she would make one for herself.

"Oh dear." She looked sympathetic. "Don't worry sweetheart, don't you worry one bit. Just go take a seat over there." She pointed at the row of plastic seats. "I'll take care of you."

"Thank you." Jensen smiled as she walked away.

Twenty minutes later she was convinced she wasn't dying but couldn't get the slow ooze of blood to stop flowing from her hand. She had yet to see a doctor and the kind nurse had disappeared behind heavy metal doors almost immediately after Jensen had taken her seat. She was about to walk out of the room, convinced that she was not going to get any help, when she saw a mess of blond hair and leather speed past her.

"I can not get away from these people." She whispered as she grabbed her bag and made to follow after him.


	3. Chapter 3

"Why do I find you wherever I go? Am I not supposed to notice that you're following me?" Jax chuckled as he continued walking past the metal doors.

"You know I was going to ask the same thing about you. I tend to be there first before you show up and smash everything to bits." She rolled her eyes. "Besides I was waiting in there for the better part of an hour bleeding out. Figured if I pretended I was with you, doing whatever it is you are doing, I would have a better chance of seeing a doctor to stitch me up." Jensen explained as she quickened her steps to match his. "What are you doing?"

"Visiting my kid. Jesus! Did that mutt take a bite out of you?" He looked back at her with a serious expression as he saw the bloodied tee.

"Hank would never do that!" She exclaimed, "and he is a pure American Pitbull, there is nothing mutt about him!" She insisted with a huff.

"Right, I found you a job. TM needs help in the office, answering phones and filing shit." He explained as he continued to navigate through the maze of hallways.

"TM? As in the shop I just spent the day at? Resident hangout for this town's trouble makers?" Jensen gave a snort. "I'm really going to be filing shit?"

"What else would you be doing?" He laughed at her again.

"I'd give it a week before you asked me to get rid of a body." She quipped with a smirk as she pulled up on his shirt to show the blood he had gotten from beating up the guy in the bar.

"I can take care of my own bodies. And I left that guy very much alive, not that he deserved it" he grumbled.

"Did I say anything about them not being justified murders? I have a strict eye for an eye policy."

They stopped in front of a large sliding glass door with a single incubator behind it.

"So that's him?" Jensen whispered.

"Yeah." Jax looked lost for words.

"Jax, I'm so sorry." A voice whispered behind them.

Jensen spun around and saw a brunette woman in a white coat and scrubs. She heard a small intake of breath when she saw both Jax and Jensen's bloody clothing.

"Jax! What did you do?" The woman exclaimed in an admonishing tone.

"Tara," Jax started.

"That's my fault," Jensen piped up. "I cut my hand trying to open a box and Jax was just trying to help me out. Are you a doctor? Because I could really use some stitches." She shot a look at Jax that clearly said 'you owe me'.

"You should really be out in the waiting room." The doctor started.

"I was out there for twenty minutes and no one came to help me." Jensen cut her off.

"Right, well I suppose since you are already back here I can do it, if you want to just come with me." She gestured down the hall.

"I'll come with you." Jax murmured as he made to follow them.

"Aren't you here to spend some time with your new-born child?" Jensen raised an eyebrow at him. "Avoidance is not a healthy sport."

"I'll see him after I make sure our newest employee still has her hand, she'll need it for filing shit come tomorrow." He explained with a smug grin.

"You want me to start tomorrow?"

"Yeah, my Mom needs help with some of the paperwork that has been piling up, she's been hounding us to hire someone for awhile. Is that going to be a problem?"

"I'm supposed to be working with your mother? Look, no offense to your mother, I'm sure she is a lovely woman." At this Jensen heard a snort from the doctor that she chose to ignore. "But I don't work with other women very well. I've always been much better with men, women find me rather abrasive. I've never in my life had a girlfriend and I don't think the place to start is with the same woman that raised all of this." She made a wide gesture at Jax and his surroundings.

"Look this is a job, you either want it or you don't. I lived up to my end of the bargain." He held his hands up in mock surrender.

"You only have a bargain to live up to because you smashed through my other options!" Jensen fumed as they turned the corner and entered a room with several softer looking chairs with little metal trays next to them.

"Okay have a seat. My name is Doctor Knowles, I'm sorry I didn't catch yours." Dr Knowles smiled though her eyes seemed weary of Jax's proximity to Jensen.

"Hi, I'm Jennifer Holdson." She shot a look at Jax to keep his mouth shut. "I'd shake your hand but my dominant hand is a little messy."

"You're a lefty." She stated as she put on a pair of blue latex gloves and moved the shirt. "Are you a Rolling Stones fan?" She smiled as she looked at the ruined shirt.

"That was my mothers, she must have followed them everywhere. She told me she got that shirt at the Altamont Concert. Claimed it's worth a fortune because that's where that motorcycle club killed that man for some beer after she rolled off the bus with Jagger." She smiled over at Jax. "My mother is a compulsive liar." Jensen looked back at the doctor. "If I told you the whole of that colourful tale there would also be a part where she ran off with the whole security team."

"She sounds like a colourful woman." Dr Knowles commented as she started cleaning off Jensen's hand.

"She told me that story when I was four years old to confuse me about who my father was. I have a few words to describe her but colourful isn't on the list." Jensen snorted. "What is that?" She demanded as she saw a needle being prepped.

"This is lidocaine, it's a local anaesthetic it will numb the pain from the stitches and will make the cut feel better." She responded as she prepped the cut.

"No, I don't like not feeling things and I'm not big on drugs, not in my body." Jensen shook her head rapidly.

"It's non-narcotic, you aren't going to get strung out on it." She reasoned.

"No, I don't care! Get me a bite rag or something because that needle isn't going anywhere near me!" She shouted.

"Fine, I'm going to clean the cut and it's going to hurt." The doctor's stare became hard. "And if you scare the other people in this room I will personally escort you out of here."

"I can keep myself quiet when need be." Jensen scowled. "Bunch of pushers the lot of them!" She rolled her eyes over at Jax.

He had yet to say a word but she heard his light chuckle when she grabbed onto his kutte as the first stitch sliced through her hand.

"I need you to keep your hand still."

"Tara, give her a break. She doesn't want drugs, don't you have a right to respect her decision or something?" Jax asked despite his chuckle.

"Not if her decision effects my ability to help her. If she moves her hand I can't stitch worth a damn." Tara retorted.

"Well 'she' is still in the room. 'She' also has a needle in her hand trying to repair the slice 'she' also has. So for the love of God, if you want me to keep still tell me and I will. End of story." Jensen scolded.

"Then don't move your hand!"

"Do you see why I'm not friends with women?" Jensen questioned as she buried her head in Jax's shoulder.

"How long have you two known each other?" Tara asked with a glance out of the corner of her eye.

"What about ten hours?" Jensen questioned with a look at Jax. "I just came into town and needed a repair."

"You seem close."

Jensen was thrown by the question. Tara didn't seem jealous, only mildly curious and overly suspicious.

"I'm sorry are you guys like, because you aren't the ex-wife?" Jensen pointed between the two.

"No, no we are just old friends." Tara maintained eye contact with Jax for a moment longer than was probably appropriate. "Did you put something in this cut?" the doctor snapped.

"Uh, yeah. I really wanted to avoid a hospital visit in the first twenty four hours so I tried some superglue but I couldn't get the bleeding to stop." Jensen revealed with a sigh.

"Next time, Ms Holdson, just come in when the bleeding won't stop it will save us both time and pain trying to cleanout the remaining glue."

"I see." Jensen answered slowly. She was about to saw something sarcastic about being a regular boy scout but was stopped by the ringing of her phone. "Ah shit. Jax, could you get that for me? It's somewhere in that bag. I'd get it myself but I'm a little tied up at the moment."

She watched as Jax moved things around in her bag before finally pulling out a beaten flip phone.

"Hello?" He answered the phone with all of is usual confidence.

"Who is this?" Liam demanded through the line.

"This is Jax, who is this?" He responded with a bite to match Liam's.

Are you fucking my sister?"

"Not yet." Jax smirked down at Jensen. "What's your name?"

"Liam, ass-wipe. Put my sister on the phone."

"Her hands are a little occupied." Jax chuckled. "Some guy named Liam?"

"Look, Jackass, I have no problem with you fucking my sister. Honestly it's probably good for her. But when I ask to talk to my sister you either put her on the phone or you wait for me to get there and beat your ass in."

"I think he's trying to threaten my life." Jax smirked as he pulled the phone away from his ear.

"My obnoxious lump of a brother." She sighed as she released his kutte and grabbed the phone. "Hello brother dearest, what's wrong?"

"Apparently nothing, a little late night booty call?" He chuckled into the phone.

"Well let's see, it's three in the morning over there and the last time you called it was because Cate wasn't in her bed and you organised the town drunks as a search and rescue party. What's wrong?"

"Hey if the methods work don't question them."

"You found her in a compromising position with her math tutor! Maybe it would be best if you came with me, you have a lot on your plate."

"And we would all move around the country together in an RV? We're white trash but we don't need to enforce all of the stereotypes."

"Oh come on! You, me, the kids, a Winnebago, it could be fun." She teased in a singsong voice that was interrupted by a hiss as the thread was pulled slightly. "No, I couldn't see either of us being quite that domestic. But if you want to send either Cate or Russell my way, I just want to make things easier."

"Really it's fine, I just called to see about the job." She could hear the eye roll in his tone.

"Yeah, bartending didn't pan out, bunch of skin heads. I got another job answering phones." Jensen yammered into the phone as she tried to ignore the pain in her hand.

"Another chop shop?"

"Why do you always assume I am doing the same thing? I hardly ever do the same thing. Patterns make people old. I think this place is a bit more above ground, not a chop shop." She smirked. "I'm in the hospital right now, I can talk to you tomorrow."

"What's the problem?"

"Cut my hand up. Not a big deal." She let out in a rush.

"You used the fake right?"

"I have been on my own for the better part of four years and before that I took care of all of us for nine years! Believe it or not I know what I'm doing! I have to go." Jensen raised her voice an octave.

"Fine, you know what you're doing and I'm just sitting here watching your children!" Liam shouted.

"I am not going to have this conversation with you, not here, not now. I won't bother to tell you that those children are just as much your responsibility as they are mine. I won't tell you that the minute mom drops off another kid, which I can assure you will happen, that child will also be our responsibility. We are family, and family looks out for one another. Do you want Leo to be raised in the system? Is that what you want so that you can have a whore fill your bed?" Her words were harsh but her tone was calm. The pain she was experiencing dulled because of her anger. "Grow up, Liam, and don't become your father." She ended as she snapped the phone closed.

She looked at Jax his eyes were wide and he looked as if he were about to say something.

"Don't, Jax Teller, don't rag on me because I have to be the sheriff in the family. My brother needs a kick in the pants and I'm the only one going to give it to him." She warned with a glare.

"That's not what I was going to say. I think you and Gemma will get along just fine."

Jensen snorted. "That would be a first."

"You and Gemma seem perfectly matched." Tara interjected with a patronizing smile.

"I always appreciate advice from strangers that don't seem to like me." Jensen muttered.

There was a sharp tug on her hand causing her to suck in a breath through her teeth. The stark white bandage almost blended in perfectly with her white skin.

"Alright we're all done here, you just have to sign a few papers for billing and you are free to go."

"Thanks." Jensen smiled before rummaging in her bag for the wallet with her false information.

"Your hand might hurt for the next few weeks. I can right you a prescription for a stronger pain killer." Tara offered, seeming genuinely concerned.

"No, no pills. I'll be just fine with an ice pack and some Advil." Jensen responded with a mild glare.

"Alright, that's your choice." Tara backed off with her hands slightly raised.

"Damn Skippy!" Jensen huffed as she stood up collecting her belongings.

"Time's up, Jax, your newest employee has both hands at a ninety per cent functioning level. You need to go see that baby and I'm coming too. You know, back home I used to be called the baby whisperer." She smiled.

She ignored the fact that she was only called that because she always had a baby on her hip from when she was too young to know where babies actually came from. She also refused to mention that the only person that actually called her that was Frank, the town pervert.

"In that case, baby whisperer, follow me." His words were playful but his eyes were serious.

"So who's Tara?" Jensen decided a change of topic was in order.

"My past." Jax's eyes darted around the halls at passing nurses.

"Well let's move forward, I didn't like her and I don't think she liked me." Jensen shook her head. "Oh look at that baby!"

The little switch in her brain flipped as she saw Abel. He was so small and his little blue hat perched over his head about three times too large.

"I know you probably don't hear this every day but you make beautiful babies." Jensen stated as her eyes became large and a smile plastered onto her face.

"Would it surprise you to know that I heard earlier today?"

"Not even in the slightest." Jensen laughed. "Hey, little guy, look at you! Did you know you're a miracle?" She cooed through the plastic maintaining his life. "Can I?" She gestured at the opening for her hands. "Or maybe you first? I'm sorry, I love babies and they're so innocent."

"Go for it. To be honest I couldn't bring myself to actually lay a finger on him. He's so little and fragile, I could break him with these hands." He held up his hands to emphasise her point.

"Ah, poppycock! If you love him and you aren't drunk out of your mind you'll do just fine. I spent my entire childhood taking care of the little humans and I haven't broken one yet." She assured as she slipped her hands into the incubator.

"The trick is to act like you know what your doing and the rest will come naturally. Now he's your first so if you're gonna make mistakes it'll be with him. Trust me you will make mistakes. I consider myself lucky Liam made it through elementary school without an arrest on his record, of course your standards can be higher." She giggled as she patted Abel's stomach with her uninjured hand.

"Nah this little guy is gonna be a badass." Jax smiled as he looked through the plastic.

Jensen felt a small pressure on her backside and let out a small sigh. "Jax, I like you. You are a bit cold on the outside, but hey I can look past that and acknowledge that I'm no diamond either but if you want to put your hand on my ass I'm going to ask for at least a drink, if not dinner, first. Remove it or lose it." Her smile turned slightly colder.

"What if I told you I would buy you a drink when we leave here?"

Jensen let out another sigh.

"Listen, I would be happy to get a drink with you, actually after a day like today I would say I need a drink, but under absolutely no uncertain circumstances will we be sleeping together tonight."

"And the reason being?"

"The reason being that I am currently living in a motel that rents by the hour, tomorrow I will start a job with your mother, and my dog would be in the room with us. That is why we are not having sex, even if you buy me a drink. I'm white trash, but I refuse to enforce all of the stereotypes."

"Hey I don't need to try that hard to sleep with someone." Jax chuckled.

"Yeah, but the chase is half the fun and when you hear a girl say no it just makes you want to try harder. I am not some whore to warm your bed I am a lady. I'm not a refined lady, or even a lady you take home to meet the parents. But if you think that I will jump into bed with you because you give some sexy little smirk and run around in some leather cut-off you have another thing coming." She still had a smile on her face as she looked at Abel but her words weren't as soft.

"I don't give up." Jax murmured into her ear as he moved slightly closer.

"Good, neither do I." Jensen smiled as she extracted her hands and shifted slightly. "I'm going to go now and I will see you tomorrow probably. I assume nine o'clock? Can I bring my dog?"

"Sure the prospect loves him though I don't know why, and nine o'clock sounds about right." Jax smiled but faltered as his hands moved towards the incubator.

"Here let me help." Jensen smiled, as she pulled on his hand toward the opening. "Just place your hand here and let him know you're there. He's your son he loves you already." She looked over at Jax and saw her words were lost. He was so absorbed in his son all else was forgotten. "Alright, my work here is done." she murmured as she backed towards the door.

When she got back in the car Hank attacked her with kisses.

"Hey buddy! You miss me? Don't worry I'm back now. Oh alright!" She sighed as Hank rested most of the length of his body in her lap and looked up at her with the most sincere eyes. "But just this once." She shook her finger with a mock stern face as she started the car with a chuckle. "Come on, hun, let's go home."

By the time she got back to her room her hand was on fire, and she could swear it had a pulse of it's own. All she could think about was collapsing into bed. The sheets were rough and they smelled of bleach but she couldn't find the will to care. She pulled off her shorts while facedown on the bed. Before she could comprehend the day she felt her breathing regulate and her eyes droop.

When she woke up the next morning she felt a hot breath on her face. She blinked her eyes open and was confronted with Hank's large snout resting on the crook of her elbow that was tucked under her arm.

"Hank!" Jensen complained loudly as she began pushing at him fruitlessly with her foot. "What is the point of making a bed for you if you always come sleep in my bed? Come on let's go get some breakfast." She pushed herself out of the bed and looked at the beaten digital clock that rested on a dingy nightstand. "Shit, Hank, were late!"

The clock flashed eight o'clock as she rummaged around in the box of clothing for something to wear. She pulled on the first thing she could find and pulled a brush through her hair. By 8:15 she had a toothbrush in her mouth and was rushing towards the door.

"Come on, Hank, I'll buy you breakfast that the diner. I promise, eggs and bacon. And I'll take you to the park today." She bribed as she tugged on his leash as Hank attempted to run back to his empty food bowl. "No time, Hank! Come on eggs and bacon!" She stuffed one of Hank's toys into her bag.

Apparently the word bacon got Hank moving at full speed towards the door and down the walkway. They drove for only a few minutes before they made it to a diner that looked stuck in the fifties.

"Stay, Hank. I'll be back in a moment then maybe breakfast in the park." She scratched behind Hank's ear. "Eggs and bacon remember that and don't ruin the car." She rolled the window down slightly.

She walked into the diner and looked around for a waitress. She saw a middle aged woman with bright pink lipstick staining her chipped front tooth.

"Hi, I'd like to order some food to go, please tell me you do this." Her voice shook slightly. "I'm sorry I'm trying to not be late for my first day of work and, yup, I'm not doing very well." She looked down at her watch and grimaced as she saw she only had half an hour.

"Well, what are you having?" she smiled with a sympathetic look.

"Um, scrambled eggs and bacon with absolutely no salt or pepper or anything else and a burger with everything. Oh and a coffee." Jensen listed off her order.

"I can get that for you in fifteen minutes if you want to sit over by the bar." She pointed over at the cherry red vinyl bar stools.

"Thanks, Ellie, I owe you one." She smiled as she looked down at her nametag.

"Not a problem. I'll be right back."

Jensen walked back out of the diner fifteen minutes later with a bag of food.

"Sorry, Hank, no time for the park this morning. Maybe we can go after work or during a break." She muttered to herself as she turned onto the main road and towards the repair shop.

As she pulled up at nine o'clock on the dot she saw a woman with dark brown hair and stripes that made her look like a skunk in Jensen's opinion. The only other person in the area was Kip and he looked slightly worse for wear. He kept rubbing his eyes and shaking his head.

"Come on, Hank, I have breakfast." She shook the box temptingly as she made her way out of the car and leading him towards the same pole as yesterday. She moved over to the table and began cutting up the food into bite sized pieces and mixing them together before putting the Styrofoam container down on the ground in front of Hank. "Don't eat the container." She warned half-heartedly.

Jensen walked into the shabby office and appraised the work in front of her.

"Can I help you with something?" the woman that reminded Jensen of a skunk questioned with a harsh tone.

"Yeah, I'm Jensen. Jax told me y'all had a job for me to do, filing and stuff?" She looked around at the massive stacks of papers and little pink slips from carbon copies. "He didn't lie, you guys must be months behind on some of this crap." She moved a box over and plopped down on a worn couch. "Do you mind if I eat my breakfast?" Jensen asked with a questioning stare as she opened the first box and began sorting.

"Have you ever done something like this before?" The woman asked with a cocked eyebrow that reminded Jensen of Jax.

"Yeah, I worked for a repair shop in Southern California called Benito's for six months. If your wondering I can rap some pretty mean Spanish." Jensen justified as she pulled out her burger. "Seriously, I didn't get breakfast this morning. Can I eat this?"

"The wage is twelve dollars an hour, you are expected here from nine to six and you get an hour break for lunch. No benefits, no overtime, no paid vacation. I won't be here all of the time but there will always be one of the guys in the shop after noon. Anytime before that that the prospect is out there if you have any concerns. I'm Gemma."

"So you're Jax's mom? He was telling me I was going to be working with you." Jensen began unwrapping her burger.

"Honey, let's get one thing straight. You don't work with me, you work for me." Gemma sneered as she moved back to the stack of paper work. "He told me a little about you too. Said he had to get you this job to stop you from working with a bunch of skinheads. I told him that if anyone really wanted to work with that crew he doesn't owe them a thing."

"I didn't want to work for a bunch of Nazi loving nut jobs, if that's what you're asking. But my family depends on me getting a job and making enough money to send back enough for rent and food. I'm going to tell you right now that I am thankful for a job at all. If you want to fool yourself into the fact that I am going to make the same or more money working here than I would have gotten behind a bar, well I suppose that's your business." Jensen stated.

"How many?" Gemma asked looking up from her work with a curious eye.

"Am I taking care of back in Akron? Four, if you are only counting the ones I like. Six, if you count my parents and I do." Just thinking of her responsibilities made Jensen tired.

"Why?"

"Because family takes care of family. I don't have to like the cards I've been dealt but I do have work with them. This is my family and if you think for a minute that I won't bend over backwards to protect them, you have another thing coming." She was exhausted from giving that speech.

First her brother now this stranger, no one seemed to understand unity or loyalty. Jensen could feel the lessons her grandfather taught her be forgotten. They worked in silence for a few hours creating stacks of fileable papers and weeding out the trash. At noon Jensen finally let out a sigh she had been holding in.

"I'm going to take my break now. Is this a usual day? I mean there haven't been any calls or anything." Jensen questioned as she stood up and stretched her back.

"Things usually start to pick up in the afternoon. People coming up through the grape vine start to overheat their cars once the Santa Ana's pick up around two." Gemma responded without looking up. "Be back in an hour."

"I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to go out and give my puppy some much needed attention because he is the only thing in this world that I voluntarily take care of." She smiled at Gemma and grabbed the knotted rag out of her bag. "How's my boy?" she called as she left the small office waving the toy over her head.

She let him off his leash and started bouncing on the balls of her feet, eager to expend some energy. Hank took the bait and started wrestling for the toy in Jensen's hand. He knocked her to the floor with expected ease and drooled over her with a playful growl.

"Oh you think you've won, do you?" Jensen asked with a laugh. She used most of her upper body strength to roll Hank over. She let out a manic laugh as she got up and waved the toy around. "Come on, you can do it!" she jeered as she backed up. "Oh shit!" She called as she felt someone behind her. "I'm sorry!" Jensen exclaimed as she jumped forward only to collapse into a hyperactive Hank. "Crap!"

"Whoa there!" the man with green eyes called as he extended a hand to stop her form falling to the ground.

"Thanks, I don't usually start tripping over myself until I've had a few." She smiled as she extended her hand. "I'm Jensen."

"Tig." The man responded with a smile as he took her hand.

"Don't take this the wrong way but," She began.

"Oh, how I love conversations that start this way." Tig shook her head.

"Fine take this which ever way you please, but last time I saw you, you implied I was a prostitute. I am not a prostitute, never have been and God willing never will be! So if you will excuse me I am going to go over there and not be a prostitute. Also if Hank decides he doesn't like you, it's usually a good sign I won't like you. Take it as a compliment that he's not trying to take a snap at you." She looked down at Hank, who appeared to be regarding Tig carefully. "I might not have him well enough trained to properly fetch a ball and bring it back, but he was born with the attack command."


	4. Chapter 4

"Jensen, I need to ask you something." Jax called across the yard and made a beckoning motion with his hand as he headed into the office.

Gemma had left ten minutes earlier to check on Abel with a friend and Jensen was supposed to be manning the phone but hadn't gotten any calls yet.

"How can I help you?" Jensen asked with wide eyes as she entered the room behind Jax and closed the door behind her.

"Are you recovering?" He spun around on his heals looking torn. "Because if you are this isn't the place you want to be working."

"Look, Cholo," she gestured at his blue plaid shirt he was wearing with only the very top button done. "I'm sure you don't know what you're talking about. But I would warn you that the next sentence out of your mouth had better be very well thought out. Now just what am I supposedly recovering from?"

"Are you forgetting that a was there with you at the hospital? I've never seen someone so defensive about some medication." Jax's eyes lost their uncertainty and with every word he spoke he became more confident.

"I'll tell you the same thing I told the doctor, I don't like not feeling things." Jensen refused to make eye contact.

"You lied to the doctor about your name, I'm just suppose to believe you were telling the truth on that one?" His eyebrow rose in disbelief.

"Look, my grandfather was the closest thing I had to a dad. He was raised Irish Catholic; back there and back then a drinking problem wasn't a problem. But under no imaginable circumstances do we talk about a drug problem. No, I'm not recovering, but I've seen plenty." Jensen sat back down on the couch and focused on the job at hand. "Are we done? Or would you like to ask some other overly personal questions?" She looked up briefly and saw the look on his face.

"He died?" Jax asked, though it sounded more like a statement.

"He watched his only son become a gambling alcoholic that hated his children and their mother after going off to war at his request. Yeah, he's dead." She kept her eyes trained on the repo sheets. "You are aware that this paper work is over six months old?"

"I lost my old man when I was young." Jax stated more as a way to fill the silence Jensen created.

"Lucky you." Any one else might have said that with sarcasm but Jensen was serious as she looked in her bag without looking for anything. "If he dies when you're young he can't do anything to make you think less of him. At least he can be your hero, mine's done everything in his power to make him my enemy." Jensen gave a short smile.

"Your father is your enemy?"

"No, CPS is my enemy, my father is an annoying roadblock." She clarified. Her phone started to ring and she let out a huff as she saw the caller ID. "My brother, he likes to check in everyday. I think I talk to him more now then I did when I was at home." She smiled at Jax as he pointed towards the door. "Liam! How can I help you?"

"Listen, Jen, I can't find Cate. Don't freak out, I think she's headed towards you." Liam explained in one quick breath.

"What do you mean she's headed towards me? How does she even know where the hell I am?" Jensen yelled as she stood up. She saw the other guys in the garage through the window look at her. "Shit! Liam she's thirteen! Just how is she planning to get here?"

"I told her where you were last night after we got off the phone. She heard what I said, told me if I didn't want the responsibility she'd leave. I didn't think she'd actually do it!" Liam yelled as he tried to save his ass. "Her computer had searches for a flight leaving last night due to arrive in Oakland at about three your time."

"You are going to tell me right now that you know for a fact my little girl is not on a plane to one of the most dangerous cities in California!" Jensen screamed as she held the phone away from her ear. "How did she even get the money to do this?"

"Jensen, I'm sorry! I fucked up." Liam stated into the phone.

"Damn right you did! Fuck, Liam, I want you and the kids out here, pack up the car and go! No excuses. Do you hear me? I am going to kick your ass ten ways to Sunday." Jensen hollered before snapping the phone shut. "Jax!" She called as she entered the garage. "Jax I need to go to Oakland now. My kid sister ran away from home, Liam thinks she headed out my way."

"It's not me you want to talk to." Jax pointed over at Gemma's Cadillac that had just pulled up.

"Shit." Jensen murmured to herself. "Fine, what can go wrong?" She heard Jax laugh as she walked over to Gemma. "Gemma, I know this is a bad time to ask this, but I need to go to Oakland right now. I'll be back by tomorrow but my sister decided to runaway last night and now she's headed my way. She's thirteen years old." Jensen's words were scattered.

"You going to take care of family?" Gemma asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I am always taking care of my family." Jensen sighed. "I just need to do this I can't leave her in Oakland. Do you know that time it is?" Jensen looked down at her wrist and realised there was no watch there.

"Yeah, it's a quarter to four. You go take care of your family." Gemma nodded. "Do you want one of the guys with you?"

"No I just want you know where my sister is." Jensen shook her head.

"Take Chibs, he'll scare the living shit out of your sister. She won't run away after that." Gemma reasoned as she walked toward the office.

"Which one is that?" Jensen asked as she followed Gemma.

"The Scott with the scars." Gemma pointed over at him and made a gesture for him to come into the office. "He'd scare any thirteen year old girl."

"I'll scare the young lass for ya, ma pleasure." Chibs stated as he overheard the last part of the conversation.

"Why are you all doing this?" Jensen questioned. "It's just that most people don't do this for strangers, not without wanting something in return."

"You're protecting your family, I'm introducing you to mine." Gemma shrugged but maintained eye contact.

Jensen's phone went off again, this time the number wasn't recognisable.

"Catie! Is that you?" Jensen answered.

"Hi Jensen." Cate's voice rang through the phone.

"Where are you? Are you at the airport? I'm coming to get you but it's going to take a little time. I need you to stay right where you are. I'm not kidding, you walk out of the terminal and you pick a spot to park it." Jensen whispered in a lethal voice.

"Jensen, I can just hotwire a car and meet you out there. You don't need to be so stressed."

"So stressed? I'm over here having a heart attack because your brother calls saying you ran away. Most thirteen-year-old girls are thinking about makeup and boys not hotwiring cars. Catherine O'Halloran you stay where you are!" She closed the phone and buried her head in her hands for a minute before looking up at the pair in front of her. "If we are going to do this we need to leave now." She looked at Chibs, "Are you sure you are okay with this?"

"Just let this be an apology for pointing a gun at you." Chibs shrugged.

"I have it on good authority that you weren't pointing it at me." Jensen smiled.

"Tha's what I wanted ya ta think." Chibs laughed but his statement caused Jensen to freeze up.

"It's going to take us at least an hour to get there, and I might have gotten some of my point across on the phone but I can't guarantee she'll stay put."

"Le's get a move on then." Chibs pointed towards the door.

"I'm leaving Hank here. I'll be back to get him tonight. Kip is playing with him, Lord knows he needs it." Jensen sighed as she walked out the door.

"Go take care of your family." Gemma repeated.

The drive should have taken over two hours but Jensen developed a lead foot after learning where her sister was and made it in just over an hour. Chibs kept pace with her erratic driving without complaint. The Oakland airport was a maze of roadways and misleading signs. It took thirty minutes of wrong turns and other lost drivers before she finally saw the curly mess of red hair sitting on a suitcase.

"Catherine O'Halloran! Just what do you think you are doing here?" Jensen yelled as she parked the car and jumped out, ignoring the honks from the other cars.

"Hey, sis! Who's the body guard?" Cate looked over her sister's shoulder.

"Listen, lassie, you are done moving around. You run away again and I will personally hunt you down and drag you back." Chibs moved forward.

"Jesus sis! I thought you said you were done with foreigners after that Irish sleaze you were seeing." Cate tried to sound brave but the fear was clear in her eyes.

"Right now you are the only Irish sleaze I am dealing with!" Jensen stated with a cold glare.

"Did ya hear what I just said?" Chibs asked in a serious tone. "I don't ask twice." His dark tinted glasses made him look even more dangerous.

Jensen heard Cate's audible gulp.

"Yeah okay I understand." Cate nodded fiercely.

"Get in the car. We have the whole way back to Charming for me to yell at you." Jensen folded her arms and looked off.

"Jensen, I'm sorry, I didn't know what to do. I heard Liam on the phone saying he didn't want us and I just thought it would be better if I came out to be with you. We could have a girls time." Cate reasoned as she climbed into the car.

"Don't start with me. Both Liam and I were terrified and all you've done is caused the whole family move from one coast to the other. This is the second time in three months that I have heard shit about you. First with the math tutor now running away, what is going on?" Jensen smacked the steering wheel for emphasis.

"I guess it's my lack of a mother figure in my life." Cate snapped.

"You are going to blame this on me? Worse, you are going to lump me in with mom? Mom hasn't seen you since she dropped you on the doorstep with a note. I on the other hand have provided a home for you, bought you clothes and food; I walked around the ghetto with you selling Girl Scout cookies. For all intents and purposes I am your mother and I have been a damn good one!"

Jensen paused as she saw Cate pull out a pack of cigarettes. Her mouth dropped as she yanked them from her hands and pulled over to the side of the road.

"Give me your purse." Jensen stated as she held out her hand. "Get out of the car." She demanded as she hopped out. She placed the bag on the hood of the car and dumped the contents. "Have you forgotten that you are thirteen?" She yelled as she saw the contents. She ran over to the trunk and pulled out Cate's suitcase. "Jesus! Cate, what is this?" She held up a large bottle with a crown on it.

"If you don't know what that is, you don't have much of a life." Cate smirked but her fear started showing again as she saw Chibs get off his bike and walk towards them.

"No, Cate, I don't have a life at all. I've been too busy working to make sure you can waste my money on bad booze!" She yelled as she threw the bottle to the ground watching it shatter. "Cigarettes are a no. If you want to live with me you live with my rules. My rules are stricter than Liam's and this is what you get for running away. You're thirteen!" She yelled as she stomped on each cigarette individually. "Start acting like it! No sex, no booze, no cigarettes, no discussions." She ticked them off one at a time on her fingers. "And you are going to be glued to my side for the next three days before your brothers get here. Let me be the first to tell you. You are under house arrest!" She screamed. "Get in the car and be thankful you're too large for me to take you over my knee!"

The rest of the car ride was silent as Jensen fumed about no one telling her Cate had slipped of the deep end. When they pulled up to the repair shop a party was in full swing. Women in no clothing paraded around while men sat on couches, apparently enjoying the view. Jensen finally understood what Jax had meant when he said he didn't need to try that hard.

"Stay in the car." Jensen warned as she got out to look for Hank. She found standing directly under some man's feet as he flipped burgers on the grill. "I'm sorry, Hank isn't bothering you is he." She tried to be polite but was met by a grunt. "Well don't worry I'm just gonna get him out of your way." Jensen flashed another smile.

"He wouldn't have been there if I didn't feed him the first one." The man finally spoke with a gruff voice.

"Yeah, but it's hard to resist these eyes." Jensen moved down to Hank's level and scratched behind his ears. "Thanks for taking care of him." She smiled again as she moved back towards the car.

Her heart stopped as she saw the passenger side door left open. She looked around franticly for Cate. She let out a long breath when she saw that at least she wasn't surrounded by a group of men. But the women she had struck up a conversation with didn't seem entirely promising either. They all wore almost no clothing and heels that made them an easy six inches taller.

"Cate, what did I say about staying in the car?" Jensen yelled as she walked towards them. "Hi, this is my thirteen year old little sister. She's too young for the beer," Jensen pulled the drink out of Cate's hands. "And she's giving up smoking." She pulled the lit cigarette out of her hand and stomped it out on the ground.

The four women looked at her sceptically. Three of them must have decided it wasn't worth the fight and moved off, but the tall blonde stayed and looked defiant.

"I can talk to who ever I want. Just who do you think you are, giving me orders?" The blonde demanded.

"Look I don't want to fight with you. Back off because I will win." Jensen stepped forward.

"You're just a whore that forgot to change into her party clothes." She sneered.

Jensen saw red. No one called her a whore. She didn't even have to think about it before she saw her own fist flying at the unprepared blonde. She felt a satisfactory crunch as her fist came into contact with her nose.

"I'm sorry I don't think I heard what you called me?" Jensen called as she moved to turn away. She wasn't expecting the girl to reach up and pull at Jensen's hair, forcing her back. "Bitch!" She screamed as she turned around and ran at the blonde.

It must have only lasted a couple of minutes before someone stepped in to break them apart. But it was long enough for Jensen to receive an elbow to the jaw. She felt a hand around her mouth and started panicking. She bit down hard on the fingers that wrapped around her lips. Something wet and warm pooled around her mouth. The little that landed on her tongue tasted similar metal. It was that sensation that brought her back to reality. The red faded from her vision and she saw the blonde woman underneath her. She was sporting a bloodied nose and was holding her hand, seemingly writhing in pain.

Jensen pushed herself up and wiped the liquid off her chin. She could feel someone holding on to her; as if they were afraid she would attack again. She appraised the woman on the floor for a moment before spiting the taste from her mouth.

"I am not a whore. And when I tell you to get away from my family you get the fuck away." Jensen's voice was calm, defying every fibre of her being telling her to yell.

"You bit me! Freak!" The woman screamed from the ground. She was obviously, in Jensen's opinion, looking for sympathy.

"Yeah, I did. Maybe next time you'll think twice before picking a fight with me." Jensen turned around.

She saw Chibs standing over by Cate. The red head looked terrified and pissed all wrapped up in one facial expression. The man that pulled her off of the blonde she quickly identified as Tig. Both men were looking at her in confusion and suspicion. Cate was the first to pipe up.

"Oh, Jensen, what did you do?" the girl exclaimed as she walked towards her sister. Instead of looking at the bruise starting to form on Jensen's jaw she pulled up on her shirt revealing the tattoo. "Dad's gonna kill you when he see's this."

"I have resigned myself to Hell. Besides the ink is all about Mom, he should appreciate it. Look I'll explain it to you back at the hotel. Right now we have to get out of here. Chibs, thank you for this afternoon. I'll see both of you tomorrow." Jensen bowed her head, suddenly embarrassed by her actions.

As they trudged up the stairs at the Camelot there was an awkward silence that fell upon them. Jensen decided to ignore it as she unlocked the door to her room and limped over to the adjoining bathroom. She couldn't be bothered to swat away the cockroaches that had taken up residence in the sink. She peeled off her shirt and ran it under the water before wiping at her face. She let out a small sound as her hand ran over her jaw line. The beginnings of a bruise had already started.

"Jesus, sis, what are you doing in a rat heap like this?" Cate questioned as she plopped on the bed.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Jensen had to let out a laugh at Cate's words. "You try supporting two households! One of them had to get the short end of the stick."

"Don't even start like you are doing this all on your own! Liam works all the time and Russell just got that job at the supermarket. He brings home all this food for us." Cate explained.

"Yeah? He gets the employee five-finger discount?" Jensen snorted.

"Who cares how he gets it?"

"I do! Because the moment he gets caught he won't have a job and you won't have the free food! Guess who will have to fix the problem? I can pretty much guarantee it won't be you because of all those people you mentioned you weren't on the list!" Jensen insisted with a glare.

"I chose not to share my babysitting money. And why should I? It's my money!"

"That's how you got the money to come out here? Babysitting?" Jensen raised an eyebrow. "That must have been a pretty amazing gig you had."

"Yeah it was. The dad thought I was funny, he liked me." Care shrugged.

"I'm sure it helped that you try to look like you're eighteen." Jensen snorted. "I'm tired, I'm going to bed."

"Jensen, it's like half past eight! Are you really going to bed? You haven't even fed me!" Cate complained.

"There are some leftover fries in my purse." Jensen suggested.

"Come on, let's go for fresh fries." She complained as she poked Jensen in the ribs. "And a milkshake!"

"What are you doing?"

"I'm acting like a thirteen year old just like you asked."

"Fine, grab me a clean shirt." Jensen relented.

"Ah, but which one? You could wear the purple band tee to hug your curves, or the blue one to bring out your eyes." Cate dramatically began pulling blouses and shirts out of several boxes.

"My eyes are green." Jensen rubbed at her face trying to wake herself up.

"Not when you wear the blue shirt!" Cate responded in a singsong voice. "Jen, I think your hand is bleeding!"

"Shit, I must have torn the stitches. It's not a big deal. I'll wrap it up with something. I don't think it's bleeding as bad as it was yesterday and I really don't want to go back to the hospital. Right now all I want is the milkshake you mentioned. You're paying with all of your babysitting money." Jensen rolled her eyes.

"I don't even understand why you did it. She wasn't worth it and she barely said anything. I mean everyone knows you aren't a whore." Cate lead the way down the stairs.

"You don't understand. She called me a whore; no one calls me a whore. Look, I do a lot of shitty and degrading things to make enough money for our family. The only thing I can take a small amount pride in is that I've never once gotten in a situation where I needed to sell my body. I don't use sex to support my family or myself. I'm not a whore. It's the one thing I'm not okay with being called." Jensen smiled slightly as she thought about her reasoning.

"And you think I grew up fast." She heard Cate whisper as she passed by her to get to the car.

"Growing." Jensen called from the driver's side. "You haven't grown yet, you're still a kid. That's why I protect you. That is why I took an elbow to the jaw, hell that's why I bit someone. I'm trying to keep you from being that woman? Do you think she was really there for the food? Trust me you don't want to be the girl that warms the bed in the evening but is gone by morning."

"What I want is to get some food." Cate quipped as she plopped down into the passenger seat. "I'm not really kidding though. Jen, look at you, your driving a hybrid and going to bed at half past eight! The last time I saw you, you were dancing on tables and dying your hair funny colours."

"I can still do that if I wanted to. I guess, I don't know, somewhere along the line that just lost it's appeal. Don't get me wrong I like partying with purple hair but at the end of the day I have to go home, feed my dog, and go to work in the morning." She pulled into the parking lot of the diner.

"I'm going to show you how to have a good time. Before Liam gets here and ruins everything. Let's have fun."

"How come I have a feeling that fun with you will end with me bailing you out." Jensen rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, usually it would, but this time we'll get arrested together and Liam will come bail us out." Cate smiled as though she had an evil plan in the works, as she nodded slowly.

"Don't do it. Whatever you are thinking right now, I want you to forget it." Jensen warned with a serious gaze. "I mean it Catie, really, we can't do this right now."

"You are going to love what I do. It will remind you of your roots, you aren't some secretary that drives a hybrid! You are Jensen O'Halloran, badass extraordinaire. Jensen O'Halloran, I can remember you walking me down to the liquor store to convince the guy you were old enough to buy beer! You didn't used to be so preachy!"

"The beer went to dad. It was my bribe to him to tell CPS that he was taking care of us so that I got to keep you. He wanted us in the system. I've never been young; I gave that up for you. Can I get my cheese burger now?"

The vinyl booth stuck to the back of Jensen's thighs as she scooted into the seat.

"Are you gonna tell me about that man you were dating, the Irish one. I forget his name; we only talked once over the phone, Phil, or something like that. I didn't really like him."

"You talked to him once over the phone! How do you know you didn't like him?"

"He talked funny. His accent made him hard to understand and he kept calling you weird names." Cate shrugged as she took a large gulp of the water in front of her.

"Well he wasn't from America. His name was Finnegan. I thought we were happy, he had some other words for what we were. Casual was one of them. He learned to ride a motorcycle and found out that some girls really liked that kind of crap. The only way I found out was because he got in a accident with some girl on the back." Jensen shrugged. "To be honest, I didn't have much invested in him, but it's not every day I get played."

"What an asshole! Well that's the mission, isn't it? Gotta get you a new boy toy!" Cate did a little dance in her seat.

"What can I get ya?" The waitress asked as she walked up to their table.

The sisters placed their orders and sat in silence for a few minutes.

"Do you already have someone you're interested in?" Cate finally asked questioned as the cheeseburger was set down in front of her.

"Cate, I've been here two days. I can't even tell which way is up right now."

"Jensen, you've been here two days hanging out at an auto shop filled with young attractive mechanics, are you saying you haven't noticed even one of them?"

"Of course I have, but I'm trying to do things different now. I need to find a new method for picking the boy." Jensen shrugged with a mouth full of fries. "I forgot how hungry I was."

"Who is it?"

"You wouldn't know him, you just rolled into town."

"A man's name says a lot about his character." Cate smirked knowingly.

"Yeah? And where'd you get that lovely piece of information, the dad that took a shining to you? He was a pervert, Cate!"

"Does it really matter where I got it? It's not like it isn't true. Could you ever really trust a man named Bob? No, you would never trust that name!"

"If Bob were short for Robert then yes I would say you could trust him. We know a lot of Roberts."

"Name one you trust. "

"Our cousin's kid. His name is Robert and he seems like a decent fellow." Jensen lifted her head up a little higher.

"He doesn't count, he's four years old!"

"Hey I was there for the birth, we share a birthday." Jensen defended as if birthdate made him trustworthy.

"It really doesn't matter." Cate cut her off as she started to say more. "The point is I want to know his name."

"It's complicated."

"So make it simple."

"His name is Jax. Now I'm not going to sit here like a schoolgirl and talk about if he likes me or not. I have just noticed and appreciated his looks and that is all. Are you going to eat that tomato?" Jensen looked for a change in subject.

They ate in complete silence that continued on the ride home. When they finally pulled into the parking lot of the motel Cate let out a low whistle.

"Look at that!" She exclaimed as she hopped out of the car and made her way to the black Italian sports car parked only three parking spots away. "How often do you think this place sees this kind of car?"

"At least some one is having a good time. Come on, it's not our business." Jensen tugged lightly on Cates arm as they walked up the stairs. Jensen fed Hank the leftovers of their meal before crawling into bed with Cate by her side.

"I had fun today sis." Cate whispered.

"I live to serve." Jensen responded with a serious expression.

When Jensen woke up the next morning the curtains were hanging open, allowing light to stream in and Cate was standing over her with a smug smile.

"I have a treat for you." She sang out. "Get dressed come on you have work in a few hours."

Jensen threw on the first thing that touched her hands and made for the door.

"What's the treat?"

"Something to remind you where you came from." She held out the keys to an unknown car.

"What's this? Oh no, Cate, you didn't!" Jensen's eyes grew wide.

"They were on the ground near the office, I just picked them up." Cate shrugged. "It's parked about four blocks down the road, just waiting for a test ride! Come on, you know the man that owns it doesn't drive it like it should be driven."

Jensen wanted to take the higher road and tell her sister to put it back but the small voice in her head told her that she just wanted to have some fun. They weren't hurting anybody. She took a large breath and tightened her grip on the keys.

"Listen closely to what we are going to do." Jensen's voice came out as a whisper. "You are going to get in my car and take Hank to the shop, Kip should be there to watch him. I'll follow behind and pick you up. We are going to take this for a short ride out somewhere no one is going to see us. Got it?" Jensen's finger was up in Cate's face before she could stop herself.

"Yeah, this is gonna be so much fun and you are going to remember who you are!" Cate gushed as she ran back to the room to get Hank.

The first part of Jensen's plan went off without a hitch. Kip took Hank no questions, even after he saw the impressive car. They met a roadblock as Jensen saw Jax strutting out of the grey building on the other side of the yard. She saw his smirk as he noticed who it was and what he was driving. He didn't pick up his speed at all as he walked towards them. As if he expected her to wait and she did.

"Miss O'Halloran, just what are you up to this fine morning? I see your sister made it to you safe and sound." He smiled over at Cate, who was seemingly lost for words by the pretty boy.

"Well, Knucklebones, we are going on a test ride of this beautiful car. Something about finding out my roots, I'm not really sure you would have to ask the mastermind here." Jensen pointed her thumb over at Cate.

"So where are we headed?" Jax asked turning his smirk to Cate.

"Um," Jensen heard Cate gulp. "Where ever my sister wants to go, I suppose." Came her stuttered response.

'Smooth' Jensen mouthed to her. "I don't remember inviting you to the party."

"Yeah well I don't remember inviting you last night but that didn't stop you from making an appearance. I heard you caused quite a scene. Taking a page from your dog's book?" He let out a small chuckle as he opened the passenger side door and gestured at Cate to get out.

He made himself comfortable before pulling Cate onto his lap.

"She's thirteen, I want to see your hands at all times!" Jensen warned as she started the car.

"You're going to let him do this? I don't even know his name!" Cate protested.

"The name's Jax, sweetheart." Jax nodded behind her.

At the name Cate's demeanour suddenly switched. Her smiles became sweet and she relaxed into his arms slightly. She gave a smug smile to Jensen, who turned a light shade of pink.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. Cate mentioned you last night."

Jensen could feel this conversation going nowhere good and pressed her foot harder into gas pedal, pealing out of the gates. The car pushed forward faster than she had anticipated but refused to look like it actually shocked her. She took backstreets out of Charming. Her turns were sharp and left no time for idle chitchat.

"Are you ready to see how fast this thing actually goes?" Jensen finally asked as she made it to a straightaway with nothing but dirt surrounding them.

"We haven't already?" Care asked with a weak voice.

"Your going to act like a bad girl till it really matters?" Jensen taunted, the blood was rushing in her ears. She hadn't felt this in a long time. It's the same feeling people describe coming off a roller coaster, as if her body were a feather forced forward by the sheer adrenaline rush. "Liam used to do this better than me." Jensen concluded as she shifted into fifth and watched as the car surpassed eighty miles per hour and kept climbing. "You were right!" She screamed over the engine. "That man didn't know what he was sitting on!" She let out a laugh and pulled another sharp turn.

As soon as they pulled back into the shop's gates Cate let out a sigh of relief.

"I think I'm going to be sick." Cate whispered as she flung herself out of the car and put her hands on her hips.

"Let it out sis. Just let it out." Jensen light heartedly thumped her on the back. "Just clean up after yourself and meet me in the office. Knucklebones, as always it was nice to see you." She gave him a playful smile.

"So, Jen," Jax started.

"It's Jensen." She broke in. "Only family calls me Jen. You ain't anywhere near that close to me."

"Come on I thought we were friends?" Jax smiled as he moved closer.

"I have a lot of friends Jax, if you want to call me Jen you are going to get a lot closer than that." She smirked as she took the same sized step as him. They were so close she could almost feel the leather of his kutte brushing along her sides.

"How much closer do you want me?" he whispered with the hint of a smile.

"Depends on what you're going to do when you get there." Jensen's eyes roamed over his chest and down till she met his shoes, then back up again. It looked like he was about to say something else but she cut him off. "You wanted something?" She asked as she backed away.

"I wanted to know if you had heard about the carnival coming to town." Jax took a step back and shoved his hands in his pocket.

"Funtown? Yeah I've seen a few signs at the diner. Why?" Jensen's brow furrowed.

"I thought it would be fun if we went on a couple rides together." Jax shrugged.

"Mister Teller, are you asking me out?" She smiled and let out a sweet laugh.

"Are you going to make me ask twice?" Jax questioned with a small smirk.

"Have you ever known me to be so cold? I think it would be fun to ride some rides. Just to be clear, this is a date. That means you will pay for my cotton candy and possibly a churro and if it goes well I will think about letting you up to my room." Jensen smirked.

"Hey this is just a friendly date between co-workers, but if your going to throw yourself at me I suppose there's really nothing I can do to stop it." Jax smirked as he raised his hands in surrender.

"Damn straight!" Jensen laughed as she moved away towards the office with Cate hustling after her.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: I try to avoid author's notes when I can because I know people get fed up with the rambling messages. I'm going to ask once and never mention it again, I would like reviews. I can take the criticism as long as you can understand that I won't listen to all of it. Thank you.**

"Since when do you not like people calling you Jen?" Cate snickered. "You used to insist people call you that! Back then Jensen was a boy name."

"Don't forget it was a reminder of Mom's stupidity." Jensen let out a laugh. "She never really had a knack for names. This is the same woman that named our brother after Leonardo DiCaprio.

"Good morning, Gemma. This is my sister Cate she's going to hang around with me for a few days. Don't worry she knows if she's here she's working. She also knows that this is payment for making me take the afternoon off to pick her up." Jensen smiled as she introduced her sister with a gesture.

"Free labour?" Gemma pursed her lips.

"She's thirteen, she does what I tell her to." Jensen shrugged with a smirk at her sister's pout as she saw the work that needed to be done.

"Alright well there's the work." She pointed over to the stacks. "Jensen, I want that car off the yard. If the cops find it they will be all over this place and we can't have that right now."

"You want the parts?" Jensen asked as she moved towards the door.

"Nah, We gotta keep this business clean." Gemma shook her head as she looked back down at the paperwork in front of her.

"You got it. Cate, stay here, get to work. I assume you are familiar with the alphabet?"

"Just when I thought we were making nice again." Cate grumbled as she took a seat on the sofa. "Tell me, Sis, does the F come before the U or after? I always forget."

Jensen saw Gemma's stare pierce Cate's forehead and she smiled.

"Wow, Cate, you almost came close to an insult there. Have fun." She nodded at both of them. She could hear the beginnings of a lecture start up. She bumped into Jax on her way out. "I think I love your Mother." She laughed as she continued walking towards the car. She felt her phone buzzing in her back pocket.

"Liam, how's the car ride coming?" Jensen greeted without checking to see who was calling.

"Okay, so I have some news. I packed the car and we headed out right after you called. The piece of shit car broke down about twenty minutes after we left." Liam explained over the roar of some engine.

"Damn, Liam, you didn't even make it out of the county!" Jensen exclaimed.

"Deep breath! I didn't get a chance to finish. We were on the side of the road and a friend pulled up. Offered us a ride to Cali, he wants to see those beaches the songs are always talking about."

"You gonna tell me this friends name?" Jensen questioned as she sped off in the stolen car with the phone perched in her lap. "Or should I guess?"

"I'm gonna let it be a surprise. The important thing is we are on the road and were in some shit town right now on the edge of Kansas, I would say it's gonna take us at least another two days."

Somewhere in the background Jensen heard a loud belch followed by "Nah we can make it by tomorrow."

"Russell isn't driving is he?" Jensen checked as she parked the car just outside of town next to what appeared to be an abandoned cabin. She began wiping down the steering wheel as she continued to listen to Liam.

"Yeah he drove for a bit, honestly he's thirteen you are going to have to let him do it at some point."

"I should have taught him before I left." Jensen squinted her eyes because of the sun and began walking back to work.

"He was nine when you left. You wanted to teach a nine year old to drive?" Liam snorted.

"I guess not, I just don't want him getting in an accident with Leo in the car."

"We are all going to be just fine. We aren't stopping for anything. When we get there were should we meet you?" Liam questioned.

"It depends when you get in but chances are it will be late so it will be a place called the Camelot. If you don't end up getting here till morning just follow the bikers home, a repair shop on Main Street called Teller-Morrow. You can't miss it, it's the only repair shop in town."

"Yeah we'll see you at the repair shop." Liam muttered before ending the call.

Jensen snapped the phone closed just as she walked back through town. She realised she hadn't seen any part of the small town since her arrival. It looked just like the diner, stuck in some twisted version of Pleasantville. Not one chain throughout all of Main Street, the glaring lack of Starbucks on every corner and McDonalds in between them made Jensen uncomfortable. Small shops were everywhere. It became clear that there was a butcher named Al and he was pretty much the only option, Fiona sold flowers, Bobby owned the grocers, and Lloyd cut hair. The only thing there didn't seem to be only one of were bars. Irish pubs, sports bars, Nazi bars, something to tickle everyone's fancy. She strode back in through the gates and made her way to the office. Cate and Gemma looked exactly as Jensen had left them but the tension in the air was so thick she could almost taste it. She made herself comfortable on the couch beside Cate and opened a new box of paper work.

"Hey sis, your wedding ring fell out of your purse I picked it up for you." Cate suddenly stated with an evil smirk.

"My what?" Jensen was caught off guard and she noticed Gemma's head snap up.

"Your wedding ring, here I kept it safe while you were gone. I'm sure there are some great memories attached to this ring. Finn cared about you so much." Cate's smile became smug as she saw Jensen pale and dart her eyes over at a fuming Gemma.

The red head handed over the silver band with a modest solitary diamond attached to the centre. Jensen had to think of someway to explain the situation to Gemma but didn't want to let Cate see her sweat. Cate must have know the ring wasn't actually from Finnegan, it was a gift from their grandfather that Jensen had used for a scam she was a part of in Reno. Jensen had become so lost in memories that she hadn't listened to Cate start talking again.

"Does that make you a Jensen Jameson? Because that's a bad name." Cate snickered enjoying the look on her sister's face.

"Finn's last name was Doyle, and we were never married. Jameson is a whiskey." Jensen finally found her voice again. "That ring belonged to Granddad. Yes there are some memories attached to this ring but a man isn't attached to them and half of them are bad." Jensen stated raising her head up high. "And the next time you want to borrow my jewellery you need only ask." Cate looked disappointed for a moment that Jensen had come up with an answer.

"Fine." She grumbled as she placed the ring in her sister's outstretched palm.

Jensen snuck a look at Gemma, who was appraising her with a raised brow. She told herself that she was a big girl and didn't need Jax's mom's approval, but she couldn't convince herself. Gemma was an important lady and it was vital to get on her good side. The sharp ringing of the phone interrupted Jensen's thoughts. Gemma was closest but she gave a pointed stare at Jensen and she understood. This was a test, Gemma wanted to see what she was paying for and this was the first call they had gotten.

Upon realising this Jensen gave a snort and reached for the phone cutting it off mid ring.

"Teller-Morrow Automotive Repair, Jensen speaking. How can I help you?" She smiled sweetly in an attempt to sound approachable. She listened for a few minutes to the middle-aged woman complain about how her car wouldn't start and she needed to get to some committee something or other. "Well, you sound like you are in quite a pickle! Don't you worry, Mrs Oswald, I actually have someone that can come get your car right now, I just need an address." She rolled her eyes as she listened to more of the woman's complaining. "Right, I do understand, yes of course, oh that would be very disappointing." She piped in as needed. "Okay, I have some of my best guys on the way right now, I would give them about twenty minutes. No, thank you for choosing Teller-Morrow and you tell your husband all of us here are praying for his speedy recovery."

Jensen beamed as she placed the phone back on the receiver. She shot a glance at Cate to make sure she was paying attention.

"What was that?" Gemma looked down at the phone trying to cover her shock.

"That was Mrs Oswald, she needs someone to get her car because it won't go. Her words not mine. Apparently her husband fell of his horse and twisted his ankle. She gave me an address for her private ranch and gave me a number to call when they reached the gate." Jensen put on her best snotty accent, which by default made her sound British.

"I thought only Liam could do that?" Cate wondered aloud.

"What?" Jensen laughed. "Be nice? I try and avoid it when ever I can."

"No, your whole voice changed, you became southern for a minute." Cate smiled, her eyes still wide.

"Just who do you think Liam learned it from? I only picked it up because I had to call myself out of school so many times that I had to switch up my voice. Liam does have a knack for picking them up on the spot though." Jensen laughed. "So how did I do?" Jensen turned her gaze back to Gemma.

"You did fine, don't get a big head about it." Gemma rolled her eyes. "Go tell whose ever out there to go get the car." Without another word she turned back to the stack of paper work.

"Yeah, sis, big heads make for empty beds." Cate smirked as she turned back to her own pile.

"Shut up." Jensen snorted as she passed by and pushed Cate's head further into the paperwork in front of her. "Hey, Juice, I need you and Kip to take the truck and pick up a car over at some ranch. The name's Oswald."

"What's in it for me?" Juice asked as he moved away from the car he was working on.

"A paycheque at the end of the month." Jensen raised an eyebrow.

"No I don't think that's going to be enough." Juice smirked. "I'll tell you what, I'll do what you're asking and Gemma will think you can handle the job you've been given if you tell me about the tattoo."

"Fine." Jensen let out a long sigh. "I was nineteen when my mother showed up with a six month old baby and claiming she was dying. Liver failure, she needed a transplant, our blood types were a match. So I did what any good daughter would do, I gave her a lobe of my liver if she promised to clean herself up. She bailed before I was discharged from the hospital. Left me with a baby and half a liver. The tattoo is Michael the Archangel casting Lucifer out of heaven. The words are something I heard the doctors talking about, a sacrifice of one to save another, even if the person being saved would only cause more pain."

Part of her was glad to finally tell someone what the tattoo meant. She had kept it a secret from everyone mostly out of embarrassment for being so gullible. Once the words started she couldn't make them stop. She flushed crimson when she realised just how much she had given away when all he was asking for was a simple explanation.

"We going to Oswald's place?" Juice asked with a nod. He acted as if she hadn't just spilled her secrets for absolutely no reason.

"Yeah." She couldn't make eye contact with Juice and resigned herself to looking at her hands. "I have an address and phone number if you need it."

"Nah Oswald is a big name around here, he owns half of the businesses in this town."

"Do you guys own the other half?" Jensen laughed, slowly overcoming her embarrassment.

"The only thing we own is the shop."

"Leave the legal business to the townsfolk, the real money is in the things they can't tax you for. You guys better get a move on." Jensen turned away and opened the door to the office when she heard Juice call back to her.

"Don't worry, it's not my story I won't go telling it." He nodded once before turning away and headed towards the tow truck.

Jensen smiled to herself. She had moved here just looking for a way to make some cash but had somehow found a group of people as twisted as she was, with the same perverted sense of familial loyalty, and enough man power to follow through on the threats Jensen was prone to making.

"What's got you so happy?" Cate questioned with a smile.

"I found home and it sure as hell isn't in Ohio." Jensen stated. "Your brothers are going to get in some time in the next to days. I want to find a place before they get here. They don't need to see where I've been crashing. I don't even want to see where I've been crashing. I get a break at noon and I thought we could go look at a place I saw when I was walking back from taking care of the car. It's out of the way so Liam and Russell can get in whatever shit they were in before I made them move. It's crappy but huge and if Liam and Russell find a job we can afford it."

"Jen, I have some money saved up. I spent a fair amount getting here but not all of it. I have about two grand on me and I'll give to you. Put it towards the house or food or whatever." Cate kept her eyes trained on the paperwork but Jensen examined her intensely.

"You have two grand in your purse?" Jensen looked down at the small clutch she was using to hold her lip-gloss.

"No, it's back in the room, hidden the way only an O'Halloran would be able to hide something." Cate finally looked up with a shit-eating grin.

"Would you shut up with that O'Halloran crap? You make us sound like were a gang, all we really are is a bunch of kids with a couple parlour tricks up our sleeves."

"I think that's the definition of a gang."

"Get back to work." Jensen sighed.

"I'm gonna head out for a few hours. I'll be back in time for you girls to check out that house." Jensen saw a trace of a smile play on Gemma's lips and she had a feeling she had made it on the 'at least acceptable' list.

"You know everything Liam and Russell did was legal." Cate defended as soon as Gemma closed the door.

"Actually I know for a fact it wasn't." Jensen responded without looking up.

"Helping friends isn't illegal."

"No, but pulling bullets out of drug dealers is. Are you forgetting I taught him how to sew?"

"That wasn't all it was and it wasn't his fault they came to him!"

"He sought them out for friends! Bragged about how he used to sew up the pigs feet I brought home from the butcher. If they came to him it was only because he advertised it."

"Who's to say he will even have a business when he comes out here? The gangs aren't the same and he's a not friend to them." Cate reasoned.

"Look at the place we are sitting in. Do you really think this Sons of Anarchy thing is on the straight and narrow? I don't mind that he does it, it's the only job he's been able to hold down for any real amount of time, but if we are going to do this we need to do this smart. We can't be in the middle town patching up bullet wounds!" Jensen rolled her eyes.

"Whose dog is this?" came a roar from outside.

"Shit!" Jensen muttered as she flew out the door and onto the yard. "Hanky!" She shouted as she looked around for her dog. She saw his leash still hanging on the pole she had attached it to. Hank was across the yard knocking over some tall guy with a kutte. "Hanky, Hanky, come 'ere boy!" She called as she ran forward. "Bad Hanky!" she pulled on the dog's collar with little success.

She finally managed to pull Hank off of the man and started wrestling with the dog. They rolled around for a few minutes before Hank lost interest and moved off into the shade.

"Hey! I was winning! Don't walk away!" Jensen called with a laugh. She turned back to the man, who was still standing there with a mix of confusion and approval. "Sorry about that, he's harmless. I don't even know how he got off his leash. I'm Jensen by the way, I just started working here in the office." She held out her hand waiting for a response.

"Happy." The man stated with a small grin. "He's a beauty." He pointed over at the dog.

"Don't I know it. He was the runt of the litter when I picked him out. Man told me he wasn't gonna make it but he's a fighter." Jensen shrugged. "What kind of a name is Happy?"

"I could say the same about you." Happy suggested.

Jensen rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I've never heard that one before. I'm gonna go back to work. It was nice meeting you."

Noon rolled around and Gemma gave them permission to take a break and see the house. Jensen called the number advertised on the 'for sale by owner' sign. The man pulled up to the house twenty minutes later in a supped up truck that Jensen suspected was compensating for a lacking penis size. He took them on a small tour of the large brick house. It was under impressive to say the least but there weren't many other options. He told them he would be outside while they talked, as soon as the door shut behind them Cate launched into all of the negatives of the dilapidated house.

"Jen! We can't live here!" Cate exclaimed as she walked around the heap of old carpet that smelled of piss.

"Of course we can! Get the carpet out here, slap some paint on the wall, and maybe take the wallpaper out of the kitchen. Besides as long as we're all together it will be fine."

"Jen, the bathrooms are carpeted! The sink runs brown water! The cabinets are rotted through! We can't live here!" Cate shouted.

"It's what we can afford! We need something fast and this is what we can afford. We can buy it outright and fix it up as we need to. It's like a project. Besides you and Russell will have a lot of free time because we can't enrol you in school until next September."

"Is it even structurally sound? Do we know if it's going to cave in on us? I mean why is it so cheap?"

"Because the water is brown and the bathrooms are carpeted in cat piss shag! Besides this is Charming I don't think the real estate market is really competitive. I'm buying the house!"

"You can't do that! We need a vote. That's how we have always done things even when we were separated we always voted on big money." Cate reminded her.

"I'll call Liam but I think he's going to vote with me."

"Don't be so sure of that!" Cate huffed.

Jensen let out a sigh. She didn't want to tell Cate that Liam and her always voted together because it was the only way to get anything done. Democracy never really worked in the O'Halloran household. She pulled out her phone and dialled the familiar number pressing it up to her ear.

"Liam! I found a house. It needs work and you are going to have to play plumber and possibly electrician but it's all we can afford."

"Tell him the whole story!" Cate yelled around the phone as she pried it away from Jensen's ear. "Liam the house is practically falling apart. We would need to tear everything up and I'm pretty sure this is lead paint and we can find something better." Cate argued

"We have no time! If you want a place to stay this is our only option." Jensen exclaimed as she wrestled the phone back.

"What about the place you were staying, Camelot, or whatever?" Liam asked over the bickering sisters.

"It rents by the hour Liam. Do you want Leo in a whore house?" Jensen exclaimed.

"Let's vote on it." Russell called in the background. "I'm a nay."

"Yay!" Jensen hollered a little louder than need be.

"Nay." Cate shook her head emphatically.

"I don't know, Jen, this seems a little risky." Liam started. "I'm gonna trust you on this one. Yay."

"Why don't I get a vote?" Jensen heard Leo complaining loudly.

"Sorry, Bud, gotta wait till your balls drop before you get a vote." Liam laughed meanly.

"So it's a tie! You know that that means!" Jensen let out in a singsong voice. "Oldest picks!"

"This is a fucked up system we have going for us." Cate fumed.

"It doesn't matter, I'm buying the house." Jensen smiled in triumph. She walked out and walked up to the man. "Hey, so I was talking to my sister and we were thinking about putting an offer in, all cash two grand." Jensen lowballed it hoping to get a better deal.

"I have it listed for four grand." The man countered.

"Yeah but you aren't going to get that unless some bank takes pity on you. Now I get the feeling that you are a small business type of guy, do you really want to see this gem go to some monster of a business like that?"

"Well I'd rather no see that happen. I know it isn't a lot to look at but it was my father's and I'd like to see something for it." Came his gruff response.

"I can appreciate that. The good thing about my offer is that I plan on fixing it up; return it to its glory days. It I offer anymore I won't be able to do that" She made her eyes go wide and appear innocent.

"I would like to see it like how I remember it. I was renting it out to some old lady with a million cats. After that I knew I couldn't take care of it anymore."

"I think we figured out the cat part." Jensen smiled

"Alright. I'll sell it you for two grand." Jensen had to hide her shock that her smooth talk had actually worked.

"Really? Thanks! My family is going to be so excited to hear the have a house. Thank you." She gushed. "I get off work tonight at six, if you can have the paperwork ready by then I can have the cash."

"I can make that work." His voice became even gruffer. It sounded as if he was about to cry. Jensen wanted no part of that and made a show of looking down at her watch.

"I only have an hour break and it's about up. I have your number if anything comes up and you have mine. Cate get your butt out here! We gotta go!" Jensen called as she walked back towards the car. "I'm not kidding! Get out here now or I'm leaving you with cat piss shag!"

Cate came barrelling out of the house and into the car.

"At least we all get our own rooms." She sighed.

"Did you really think I was going to be sharing a room with a sexually active thirteen year old?" Jensen raised an eyebrow.

"Actually I figured I would be sharing with Russell again."

"You know what they say. Those that are born together are seen as one. Honestly I wanted to keep your hair short when you were younger so that you would look like one person."

"You're a peach." Cate rolled her eyes.

"I'm a peach with a house." Jensen retorted.

"A house without working lights, bad plumbing, and over used rugs."

"But you know what they say, home is where the heart is." Jensen smiled as she made the turn into the repair shop.


	6. Chapter 6

"I'll tell you what, how about you head back to the motel and pack up all our stuff. Then stop at the Home Depot knock off they got here and get the things we need to pull up the carpet. We can start on it tonight after I sign the papers." Jensen handed over a small wad of bills.

"But it's," Cate started but fell silent as she saw Jensen's look.

"It's a Wednesday! Just what did you think we would be doing on a Wednesday evening?" Jensen barked.

"Not pulling up carpet in a house that should be demolished!" Cate shot back.

"Tough shit! You know this was supposed to be a sign that I was trusting you again but I guess that can't really happen can it?" Jensen exploded.

"No, I'm sorry. I know we are working on the trust thing. I can go do it." Cate backpedalled

Jensen saw that the only reason Cate was so compliant now was because she wanted more freedom but couldn't deny that the work had to get done.

"Go, before I change my mind." Jensen sighed as she handed the keys over.

As she watched the car drove off, probably faster than she should be given her age and lack of license, she felt her phone start buzzing in her back pocket.

"Hello." She answered not bothering to check the caller ID.

"Hey baby." Came a soft voice that most people would associate with a sweet personality, Jensen knew that voice was nothing but trouble, accented by the alcohol she had already imbued.

"Mom, look I'm a little short on cash at the moment." Jensen started to explain as she walked back to the office.

"Don't be silly, sweetheart. I don't want your money, Lord knows I've taken too much from you already." Her voice started to shake as if she was about to start crying.

Jensen let out a huff. It was a little late for her mother to suddenly have a conscious about all the shit she had pulled over on the family. She must want something, must have something she needs taking care of. It wouldn't be money and that was almost worse.

"What's wrong Mom?" She wished she hadn't been expecting the call. "Is it some boyfriend gone bad?"

"No, no, sweetheart, it's nothing like that." The weak voice assured. "It's just I wanted to see you. We haven't spoken in a while."

"Yeah it's been about six years, you haven't seen the others in longer."

"I know; I want to fix that. I want to see my boys I want to take care of them, be a mother."

"You are not a mother! You were an incubator! You almost killed Leo with your drinking; I'm not letting you anywhere near him. I take care of you and in exchange you stay away. You let me take care of your children, and they no nothing about you." Jensen stated.

"It's cruel. Taking a mother away from her children, it's wrong!"

"If I were taking those children away from their mother it would be wrong, but I took them from you. You aren't their mother! Leo doesn't even know your name." Jensen glanced over at Gemma, who was openly staring.

"Just tell me where you are and I can come see you. We have something we need to talk about."

"You can tell me over the phone or you can take care of it yourself."

"Jensen, I'm pregnant." Her mother finally blurted and let out a sigh.

"What? How in the hell did this happen? How could you let this happen? Honestly, don't you have an ounce of self-control? How pregnant are you?"

"That's not how pregnancy works." Her mother sneered.

"That's not what I meant and you know it! When are you due?"

"The doctors say February 14th. He's going to be our little cupid." Jensen could hear her mother's smile and could only pray it wasn't alcohol induced.

"And you want me to take care of him? You want me to raise him?" Jensen filled in the blanks, knowing her mother would never come out and say it. As she talked she tucked the phone in the crook of her neck. "You've wanted me to do it with all the others I can't see how this one would be any different."

"I'm just not in a place where I can take care of a child. I have a really good thing going here with this guy but he doesn't want a kid and I'm still married to your rat of a father." Her mother tried to justify her actions.

"I get it. I will let you know when it's a good time to come, not now. And you are not going to see the others. Do you understand?" Jensen bit out.

"Is this the way it's always going to be?" Her mother sounded distraught but Jensen could see past it.

"You destroyed any trust we might have had when you stole my liver. I have to go, I'm at work and my boss is staring at me."

"I love you, baby."

"Yeah, Mom, I'll give you a call." She closed the phone and let out a breath she hadn't realised she was holding. "I'm sorry." Jensen looked over at Gemma. "There are some people in my life that will always want to make my life hard."

"Are you handling it?" Gemma raised an eyebrow.

"I will have a new addition to my family by Valentine's Day but I can handle that." Jensen smiled. "To be honest, I'm looking forward to a new O'Halloran baby. Seeing Abel at the hospital just reminded me what I'm supposed to be doing with my life."

"And what's that?" Gemma's head cocked to the side as she rested her elbow on the table.

"I take care of the little humans." Jensen shrugged. "I've done it all my life and I'm good at it. But it doesn't pay the bills so it can only be a hobby." She smiled.

"Why are you working here? Why not be a nanny?" Gemma looked back at her work.

"Don't get me wrong I love all babies but I only want to take care of my own." Jensen let out a snort.

"What about Abel?" Gemma asked as if it were a side thought but Jensen thought she could hear a hint of sincerity behind it.

"Well, from what I hear Abel isn't going to make it out of the hospital for the next few months." Jensen's brow furrowed as she tried to understand where the questions were leading.

"Sure, but after that. After the hospitals and all of that, would you take care of him?" Gemma's gaze became harsh, she was definitely trying to make a point but Jensen couldn't figure it out.

Jensen nodded slowly.

"It would depend on where I am in the next couple months." Jensen qualified the next thing that was going to come out of her mouth. "If I still was a part of this," she gestured around her, "in four months and Jax wanted my help. Yeah, I would do it."

"Why?"

"Because I have been here all of three days and you have shown me nothing but understanding. You've put up with my crazy sister, Chibs scared her straight, your son helped me get a car, and Juice learned my deep dark secrets and promised to keep them. Those are the kinds of things family does for family. I can't tell what I have done to earn that from you but I am incredibly grateful and want to show you the same."

"So it wouldn't be because of some crush you've picked up on Jax?" Gemma shot, and suddenly Jensen understood.

"I'm not going to lie to you, I do have a crush on him." Jensen huffed. "But I refuse to be some easy lay so that he gets over his ex, and I won't jump into the role of Abel's mother without a serious amount of thought. When I said I would take care of his son I assumed you were talking about being a babysitter or an Aunt or something."

"I suppose we'll just have to wait and see how Funtown goes." Gemma raised an eyebrow.

"Was this some backhanded way to let me know that you knew? I wasn't keeping it a secret. You could have just asked." She feigned nonchalance but on the inside was sweating bullets. She had been keeping it a secret but mostly because she was unsure about what to think about it.

She had played it cool because she didn't like people seeing her unsure about her actions. Jax gave her the impression that he was the kind of guy neck deep in things he would never be able to share. Jensen had acted as if she had not seen the signs but they were obvious to anyone with an ounce of a criminal in them. Jensen had a fair bit more than an ounce of a criminal in her and had deduced that they were running something. Their actions were guarded and groups would disappear for long periods at a time, often coming back bloodied.

She hadn't figured out what it was that they were actually doing. It could be drugs, or guns, or girls. Jensen didn't know and as long as she was working there as just some office assistant she was more than content to stay in the dark. But her interest in Jax complicated that; if they were to become involved she would need to know more. She would need to be able to protect her family.

"I heard about you at the party last night." Gemma switched the topic suddenly.

"Just came by to pick up Hank." Jensen became absorbed in an old receipt.

"I heard you caught a bite of something else." Gemma smirked, aware that Jensen was avoiding the conversation.

"Yeah, the burgers weren't half bad." Jensen lied.

"How was the skank?" Gemma questioned.

Jensen finally looked up, realising that Gemma wasn't going to let it go.

"A little underdone for my taste." She deadpanned, hoping that her flippancy would get her somewhere and praying the blonde hadn't been important to Gemma.

Apparently it did as she saw Gemma break out into a sort of half smile.

"Don't worry I'm sure a croweater like that deserved it." She stated leaving Jensen confused by the term.

"I'm sorry, a croweater? My grandfather had a saying like that, liked to throw it at me when I was wrong about something. But it was more like a demand and he had this crazy accent. More like 'Ay, lass, eat crow' followed by a round of coughing because of his emphysema." Jensen made her voice sound old and Irish.

She heard a snort from Gemma and saw her as close to laughter as she was ever going to get.

"It means something a little different around here. Do you see those words on the fence over there?"

"Yeah SAMCRO and something about a redwood original, I park my car over there. What does that have to do with anything?" Jensen was confused and only getting more confused as she peered out the window to see the two words separated by the signature reaper. "I thought that was some guy's name. First name Sam, last name Cro. Granted I thought it was a strange name but that whole thing about stones and glass houses."

"It's not a name, it's an acronym for the club. The girls that hang around to please the members are called croweaters. I'll let you infer that that means." Gemma rolled her eyes as she said it but Jensen could see the fondness there. Regardless of the trash she talked about the women it was clear she had accepted them into her twisted family.

"These girls, it doesn't bother you that I beat one of them up?" Jensen raised an eyebrow.

"Did she deserve it?"

"Depends who you ask, she called me a whore. I warned her to stay away, told her I would win in a fight but she didn't listen."

"How did you know you would win?"

"Because in all of the jobs I have worked I had to have a pretty good read on people. I could tell in three seconds of looking at her that she sips on cocktails and has never had to pay for a drink. I'm the kind of girl that shoots whiskey and pays for it by hustling some sucker at pool. I could take her."

"Have you never been called a whore before?" Gemma asked sarcastically.

"No, in fact I have been called a whore four times in my life. The first time I don't talk about, the second time by an angry ex, the third time by some guy at the bar I worked at, and the fourth time last night." Jensen stated as she recalled each memory.

"You remember every time someone calls you a name?" Gemma asked incredulously.

"No, I remember because I pulled a gun on two of them and bit the other. I know you don't really know me but that isn't my normal behaviour." Jensen tried to make a case for herself knowing that it sounded weak even as she spoke it.

"And the first time?"

"I didn't pull a gun on him or take a bite, not that he didn't deserve it." Jensen stated clearly ending the direction of the conversation.

But Gemma didn't seem to pick up on the hint, or just didn't care that she was intruding.

"What did you do?"

"I dealt with it." Jensen remained focused on her work, trading in a completed box for a stack of small pink sheets.

"And just how did you do that?" Gemma asked.

"I had one of my brother's friends castrate him with a bottle of Drano." She stated as if she were talking about the weather. Jensen had no problem telling people what she did; the problem arose when people asked the inevitable. 'What did he do to you?'

"I'm sure he deserved it." Gemma finally responded throwing Jensen off her game.

"He did." She finally managed to spit out before turning back to her work.

They worked in near silence for the rest of the day. Jensen purposely avoiding looking Gemma directly in the eye, she answered several more phone calls and sorted through four of the remaining ten boxes. When six o'clock rolled around Jensen sprang up as if someone had lit a fire under her ass. She hastily gathered her bag, explaining that she had a meeting to buy a house. She met Cate at the gate just as she was pulling up and wordlessly hopped into the passenger side, refusing to make conversation as they drove to the house. She heard someone calling her name as she dashed from office to car with hank rushing beside her but refused to stop, refused to pass go, and most certainly refused to collect 200 dollars.

The man was already sitting on the porch as the girls drove up and he gave them a wave that almost looked friendly. Jensen tried to return it but had a feeling she came off more forced than friendly. The man didn't seem to pick up on it though as he met them at the car.

"Howdy," He called as he lumbered up to them, his beer belly leading the way.

"Hi there! Do you have the papers?" Jensen just wanted to get down to business; she wanted to start work on the house as soon as possible in an attempt to get out of her own head.

"All right here, to be honest I got most of this stuff off the internet. I'm not actually sure what it's saying." The man scratched his head.

"Oh well that's okay! I'm no lawyer so it's all gibberish to me." Jensen smiled as she ran her hand along the large man's arm. She knew she had gotten this place mostly due to the fact that she had a pretty face and flirted around a little, now wasn't the time to be brushing off the technique. She would do that after he had signed the deed over to her.

She looked at the large stack of papers and flipped through it. She saw the spot for her name and signed without hesitation before handing the paperwork over to the man for his signature. Thirty minutes later and two grand lighter Jensen was the proud owner of a house.

"Do you want to know what the hardware store is called?" Cate asked as she watched the truck pull out of the driveway.

"Hit me." Jensen rolled her eyes at Cate's disregard for Jensen's mood.

"Big Brother's Hardware. Apparently the guy that owns it was the oldest brother of five. I still thought it was a creepy name, but anyways, I was taking to the guy at the store about the paint and carpet situation, because let's be honest we don't know what we are doing. He said all we had to do was paint over it with this stuff before we put on the colour and we would all be safe. That way we don't have to worry about Leo munching on the walls."

Cate's reasoning actually made sense but caused Jensen to look at her sharply.

"What?" Cate questioned as she saw the look. "You think you were my mother? What do you think I have tried to be for Leo?" She snapped.

Jensen raised her hands up in surrender; she couldn't take a fight right now. She had just spent that last four hours remembering her nightmares.

"As I was saying he gave me this stuff apparently we paint this on and my worries of lead paint are gone." She heaved over a five-gallon paint bucket and pointed over at an identical one in the car.

"How much did this cost? Seeing as we don't even know if there is lead paint." Jensen's eyes narrowed.

"Um, well, actually, I didn't pay anything for this. He said something about a welcome wagon." Cate murmured as she covered a blush.

Jensen just blinked as she imagined what her sister had to do or say to get this particular discount. The disappointment was clear in her eyes but she refrained from saying anything. Only stopping herself by reasoning that she probably would have done something similar.

"Fine." She stated, shocking Cate. "Did you ask about the carpet?"

"Yeah, I got all the stuff we need. Hey, sis, are you feeling all right? You look kind of not so hot." Cate questioned.

"I'm fine I just want to deal with this. I think the carpet should go first. I plan on sleeping here tonight and I can't sleep with that smell."

"You are going to sleep here?" Cate raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah Hank and I are going to protect the homestead." Jensen joked without much humour.

"Protect it from what?" Cate asked.

"More cats." Jensen quipped as she opened the trunk and started pulling out tools and materials. "Come on, the work won't do itself."

They didn't work in silence but it was clear that Jensen's mind was somewhere else. Pulling up carpet was harder work than either of them expected, after an hour of work they had gotten one room done. Cate looked as if she was going to pass out but Jensen was fuelled by some mysterious energy to keep working. By midnight she had moved onto the bathrooms while Cate snuck off to the car to sleep. Hank stayed by her side on high alert, Jensen figured it had something to do with the amount of cat pee that had saturated into the house. She worked throughout the night moving pile after pile of carpet out of the house, focusing only on the task at hand keeping her mind busy enough to forget the replay button it had found that afternoon. She had to do most of the work using a flashlight because the electricity had yet to be turned on but she refused to stop.

Jensen finished de-carpeting the entire house and was debating how hard it would be to remove the wallpaper from the kitchen, only barely realising that the sun was coming up again, when she heard a rustling behind her. It was too large and loud to be Hank, Jensen froze, and she slowly shifted her hand under her belt to grab at the gun she had tucked there sometime between midnight and one. The noise became louder and closer until it was clearly in the same room as her. Jensen spun around aiming the gun directly at eye level to the person behind her.

"Jesus, sis! What are you doing?" Cate hollered. "It's me, I called from the front door to see where you were. Crap, you look like hell! Did you even go to bed last night?"

Jensen looked at her watch and shook her head slightly as she lowered the gun.

"I'm sorry I didn't hear you. I didn't realise the time, I wasn't tired anyways." She lied. "Come on lets go back to Camelot and get a shower." She suggested without meeting her sister's eyes. She knew what Cate would find there and really didn't want to explain it. She had never told Cate what happened, she was too young to remember it so she figured it wasn't worth repeating. "I think we should do the paint tonight. If you are right about this lead thing, Leo really shouldn't be here with that."

Cate nodded and followed her sister out with a curious expression. When they made it to TM Jensen was running on empty but instead of feeling sleepy her entire body felt as if she were buzzing. She kept rubbing her fingers together to make sure she still had them, inside her shoes her toes bounced around and she couldn't keep her feet still. Gemma pretended she didn't notice but Cate caught her concerned expression once or twice throughout the day. At noon Jensen's buzz was only maintained from the copious pots of coffee she was consuming and the burger Cate had to nearly shove in her face.

"Okay that's it! What's wrong?" Cate exploded as Gemma left for a few hours. "I've been putting up with your weird behaviour for way too long. Not to mention you pointed a gun at my head this morning!"

"I'm fine. I'm just working through some stuff." Jensen defended.

"What kind of stuff?"

"Right now I'm trying to think of a way to tell you that you have to room with Russell again!" Jensen snapped. It was a lie, she wasn't thinking about that at all, but there was a shred of the truth. With their mother's call last night that put the body count one over the number of rooms they had.

"What?" Cate's brow furrowed.

"Mom called yesterday. She's pregnant." Jensen dropped her head in her hands and rubbed her eyes slowly.

"That bitch! I'm going to kill her! How dare she do this to us again?" Cate became so enraged she forgot about Jensen's strange behaviour. She stood up and began pacing, throwing her arms around wildly garnering the attention of everyone in the garage. "Isn't she too old to have kids anyways?"

"I think it's safe to say this will be the last." Jensen sighed. "At least until one of us." She gestured between the two of them.

"You think I plan on having children? No way am I going to bring anybody else into this shithole of a family!" She screamed. "How can you even think about having kids? What kind of life could you give them? Would you work here while you banged the biker?" Cate screamed.

Jensen's head shot to the window, she was sure everyone had heard her sister's outburst. It might have been the lack of sleep, or maybe it was that Cate's words had struck a little too close to home for Jensen. She wasn't sure, but the next thing she knew she had wrenched at Cate's hair, pulling her through the garage and out into the yard.

"Shut up." Jensen yelled at her sister's screams. "You don't want kids? Fine! No one is going to force that on you. But you need to control your anger." Her voice became lethal. She knew she was still in hearing rage for everyone in the garage. She could feel their gaze, knew that they had put down their tools to watch the sisters fight. "And the next time I hear you making comments about me banging bikers I will beat your ass till kingdom come. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, I get it. I'm sorry, that was out of line." Cate tried to backpedal but the damage was done.

"Yeah it was. I don't want you here for the rest of the day. Take the car and go back to the house, get started on the painting." Jensen couldn't even stand to look at her sister at that moment. She was hurt and embarrassed but more than anything she was pissed. Cate had come perilously close to calling Jensen the same word that had been banging around in her head since yesterday.

Cate's eyes glimmered with tears but she just nodded her head as she took the keys from Jensen and turned back to the car. Jensen let out a large huff and stormed back to the office. She could feel someone following after her and could feel herself hunch over as all of the fatigue she hadn't felt came rushing back to her. She looked briefly down at her watch, the numbers flashed at her teasingly, 3:10.

"Want to tell me what that was all about?" Came a smooth voice for the corner of the room.

"No, not really but if you are asking me as my employer's son I'll tell you." Jensen snapped as she rubbed at the corner of her eye. She turned her sharp gaze to Jax. "Who's asking me? The guy that asked me on a date, or the guy that has his name on the building?"

"Fine if you don't want to talk about it, I'm not a shrink and honestly as long as it's not hurting me that's just fine!" he argued back.

"You heard what she said. That's the end of it." Jensen concluded with a shrug. "I sent her home so we shouldn't see anymore trouble today. Don't worry I think I can restrain myself from banging any bikers."

She heard a disgruntled sound but as she turned around Jax had already left. Jensen silently cursed herself for being such an idiot but went back to work as usual. Gemma walked back in and looked around, she noticed Cate's absence but decided not to comment on it. As they both worked for only a little longer. Jensen decided to walk back to the house rather than call her sister to come get her, it wasn't too far and the weather had become pleasant in the past week. It was still hot, but much more manageable than when she had first rolled in.

She heard a rumble behind her and tried to ignore it. It was clearly coming closer and closer until it passed her. Instead of continuing on, the motorcycle pulled over and a familiar blond stepped off.

"Need a lift?" Jax asked as he handed her his helmet.

"I'm sorry about how I spoke to you, you had every right to ask and I shouldn't have acted like a grade A bitch. You don't have to be offering me rides." Jensen gave him an out.

"It's in the past, I think we can both move past it. Come one I want to give you a ride. No one should be forced to walk in this heat." He smiled, forcing a smile from her.

"Yeah, I suppose. Thanks." She smiled as she took his proffered helmet and strapped it under her chin. "I guess it was luck that Cate took Hank, he would have hated this."

"Must be luck." Jax intoned as he started the motorcycle up again. "I'm going to need directions." He called back to her.

Jensen clung close to his waist as her arms locked around him. She tucked her chin on his shoulder and gave him directions to her new house. When they pulled up to the house Jensen saw Cate walk out covered in paint splatter from head to toe. She smiled sheepishly at her Jensen before rushing back into the house.

"Thanks for the ride." Jensen murmured as she hopped off the back of his bike and handed back the helmet. "I'd offer you a drink but I don't even have running water at this point. So I guess I'll see you tomorrow?" She smiled suddenly unsure of her actions.

"You probably will." He smiled though it seemed to be more mocking than anything else. "Good luck." He pointed to the house.

"Thanks, and I'm sorry, again, about the yelling. Hey, do you think I could see Abel again?" She asked suddenly. "It's just, he's on my mind a lot." She flushed red as she stopped herself from finishing her thought. Both Teller men were on her mind a fair bit more than she cared to admit.

"I'm sure he would love that." Jax smirked as if he could tell what was on her mind. "Maybe before the carnival this weekend?" He offered with a smile that seemed too innocent.

"Yeah. Saturday sounds good." She smiled. She turned away as she heard the bike start up and speed off down her driveway.

She walked into the house and it looked as if she had entered a warzone. Cate had managed to paint all the walls in the main room but hadn't succeeded in keeping the paint off the windows. Splatter marks were everywhere; she was lucky the floor turned out to be crap underneath the carpet because smudges of white were trodden into the plywood.

"Cate!" She hollered as she stormed through the house. "What happened in there? It looks like winter threw up?"

"Sorry about that!" Cat stuck her head out of the bathroom door. "I was mad and trying to get my anger out, I didn't realise I was being messy until it was over." She smiled as if she was afraid of her sister's reaction. Jensen figured that was a reasonable reaction given her threat earlier this afternoon.

"It's fine. Look I need to get some sleep. I'm going to be out in the car, wake me in three hours if you don't see me." She whispered with a nod. "And we are going to need to deal with the windows sometime soon."

"Okay," Cate nodded enthusiastically, obviously trying to make up for her words.

Jensen acted as if she didn't see it as she dragged her feet to the car. She felt Hank sidle up beside her and hop onto her lap as she crawled into the back seat. Within five minutes of closing her eyes she fell asleep, resting her head on Hank.

When she woke up again it was pitch black and Cate was knocking on the window. Jensen pushed Hank off of her and stumbled out of the car. She felt as if lead had filled her head and feet.

"Okay I'm up. What do I need to do?" She slurred

Under normal circumstances Jensen wouldn't be pushing herself this hard to finish this but everything had changed once she demanded her brothers come out to live with her. She had kept it a secret how poor she lived so that they could have enough, but now they were coming here and she needed to prove that she could do this for them. Every last cent would be poured into this house and it would be liveable by the time they got here.

"I have both bathrooms done and the main room cleaned up for the most part, I can't get the stains off the floor." Cate ticked them off on her fingers. "The hallways need to get done. I was just going to start on the bedrooms." She stated handing her a brush.

Jensen had actually done this kind of work before. In Arkansas she had worked on a construction sight, mostly cleaning out brushes and picking up fast food wrappers, but she had learned a few tricks of the trade. That job had some perks, she got free lodging in the managers office if she dealt with the day labourers, but the job only lasted for three months before it went belly up and she was out looking for a new job.

Cate managed to work another four hours before slinking off to the car while Jensen kept working. It wasn't as if her dreams were worth returning to and every time she thought about going to sleep she reminded herself that Leo would be there later that day and he couldn't live here the way it was now. It took all of the seven hours she had left before she needed to get ready for work for her to finish two bedrooms leaving only one room untouched. Jensen figured that would be fine for the time being and they could just lock the door if they needed too.

She felt Cate next to her and wordlessly slung an arm around her sister.

"You know we still need to deal with the plumbing." Cate instantly brought down her mood.

"Do the toilets flush?" Jensen questioned.

"Barely." Cate snorted.

"Then we are all going to live for now and I can have Liam look at it once he gets here. Which should be sometime today." She couldn't keep the giddiness out of her voice. She had thought about going home to her family for the better part of four years and today she was actually going to see them. "You know I never thanked you." Jensen laughed as she thought about it. "If you hadn't tried to run away I probably wouldn't be seeing everyone now. Don't get me wrong, it was still stupid and dangerous and way out of line, and you are still being punished for it but at least you did that right."

"Well I suppose you're welcome then?" Cate's brow twisted in confusion. "I thought I would go back to Big Brother's and see about some new cabinets." She confessed with a small smile.

"I suppose you can. I don't really think that's a priority right now and we don't have the money anyways." Jensen's cocked her head to the side; under the distinct impression Cate was hiding something from her.

"You remember the guy that got me the free paint?" Cate asked with a sly smirk. "I was talking about the rotted through cabinets and he offered to look through the orders that hadn't been picked up for something. He said that if they weren't picked up in sixty days they resell them but employees get a discount and sometimes they don't make it to the shelves."

"That sounds a lot like stealing."

"Yeah but our names won't be anywhere near it. Just some guy named Tom, and we get free cabinets."

Jensen stared at her for a minute.

"Are you okay with that? I mean if this Tom guy gets caught he will get fired. How much do you like this guy?" Jensen questioned as she folded her arms.

"It's fine. Family first, right?" Cate smiled with a sigh as she walked off. "Come on, get changed so I can drop you off." She called as she walked away.

Jensen felt her phone buzzing in her pocket and grabbed for it.

"Liam! How close are you?" She asked unable to keep the excitement out of her voice.

"Hey, Jen, so we just crossed into California how far do you think that puts us from you?" Liam asked with a concentrated voice.

"Are you looking at a map right now?" Jensen laughed as she recognised the tone in his voice. "Give the map over to Russell. I think that put's you about five hours out. You guy's should be here by this afternoon."

"We would have been there earlier but we had to stop for a few things." Liam explained though his tone made it clear we would prefer she didn't ask what kind of things.

"What happened to no stops, no exceptions?" Jensen asked as she buried her anger.

"This was an opportunity we couldn't pass up." Liam answered still giving away no details to their detour.

"Fine, I guess I will see you this afternoon at the repair shop. I'll let my boss know you are coming and wait to take my break then." Jensen stated but the words were meant for herself.

"Yeah I gotta go." Liam suddenly sounded rushed. "Later." He called before the phone disconnected.

Jensen could only roll her eyes as she moved out to the car. Liam was up to something but if he didn't get caught there was a large chance that the family would benefit from it, so Jensen decided not to question it. Everyone did what they had to for the family and everyone had their own ways of doing it. Cate might seem as dumb as a sack of rocks but she knew how to get what she wanted.

They all stole in one way or another but each had their preferred method. Jensen liked the long hustle, Liam was more of a smash and grab, Cate used her charm to get others to do things for her, and Russell played it almost as close to the fence as an O'Halloran could.

As they pulled up to the office Jensen got out and walked around to the driver's side window.

"Now, I know you think you know what you are doing but just in case, if things start to go south get your butt out of there. It's not worth it for some new cabinets." Jensen warned.

"It's all going to be fine. The family needs this." Cate assured with a pointed look.

Jensen finally bobbed her head, Cate was right the family did need this. Not the cabinets, they could live without those, Lord knows they had before. They needed a win. Something to fix the funk they had found themselves in and this was the opportunity. Jensen walked over to the office after watching Cate drive off. She smiled at Gemma and sat down on the couch, falling into a similar pattern as the days before it.


	7. Chapter 7

"Here's this." Gemma looked up from a large book holding a fat envelope out for Jensen. "First weeks pay, all cash." She pursed her lips. "I figured you wouldn't be able to cash a cheque."

Jensen took the envelope and stuffed it into her bag not bothering to count it.

"I was going to take it to a bar and smooth talk my way into having them cash it for me." Jensen admitted with a laugh. "I guess you saved me that headache. So the rest of my family is coming in today, probably closer to some time around two. I was hoping I could take my lunch then. I wanted to show them to the house and get them a key."

"Your sister can't do that?" Gemma asked over a stack of invoices.

"My sister is currently scamming some guy for free cabinets." She chuckled at Gemma as she looked up in surprise. "Full disclosure right? It's the only way relationships work." Jensen smiled.

"Right. Well I guess that won't be a problem. Are they coming here?" Gemma actually seemed mildly curious about Jensen's family.

"Yeah, just going to stop by to pick me up." Jensen shrugged. "Don't worry I wouldn't have Liam around any repair shop for too long. That's a trip he would have to make on his own time."

They continued to work throughout the day before Jensen heard a large rumbling pull up to the yard. She whipped around and squinted out the window. She couldn't help as her jaw dropped to the ground. An ancient Winnebago with the bumper nearly falling off pulled in through the chain link gates. Following behind it was a moving truck that looked as if should have been scrapped at the same time as the RV.

"That little smart ass!" Jensen exclaimed as she saw her brother swing open the door and strut out as if he owned the place. She quickly put her work down beside her and walked out of the office with a strut of her own. "And just who is that man over there?" Jensen called with a snort. "Can it be my brother? Nah, my brother is a skinny pimply guy with a lisp." She strutted up closer to him and pulled him into a bone-crushing hug. "I missed you." She whispered into his ear and pressed a kiss into his jaw. "What took you so long to come see me?"

"Ah, you know, this and that. I missed you too." He smirked "How's Cate?" His tone became serious.

"She's fine. Off hustling for some stuff. Making her Mama proud." She exclaimed as she broke the embrace. "Hey look at my little man!" Jensen crouched as Leo's puff of red hair blasted into her arms and pushed her over to the ground.

"You aren't their mom." A brunette boy reminded her. He was easily six foot with defined muscles.

"Don't remind me about who our mother is." Jensen scowled. "Jesus! When did you grow up?" Jensen pushed herself off the ground but kept a firm grasp on Leo. "When I left you were writing your r's backwards!"

"Ah, I still do that sometimes." Russell joked as he held out his hand.

"None of that handshake crap! Come on give me a hug!" She pulled him into a hug without waiting for his permission. "When you said you got a ride I figured I'd find you all crammed into a Honda with Leo in the trunk." Jensen barked a laugh as she looked at Liam for answers.

"Someone gave us a ride." Liam shrugged.

"He smells funny." Leo piped up with an odd expression plastered onto his face.

There was a loud flushing sound coming from the RV and a tall man with a short brown beard and long hair kicked the door out and placed his thumbs in his belt loops.

"Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit! Look at who joined the party!" Jensen exclaimed with a squeak as she launched herself into the man's arms and wrapped her legs around his waist. "God, you think I missed these lumps? It's nothing to how much I missed you!" She placed a sloppy kiss on his cheek as she felt his hands grasp at her ass.

"Well darlin' when I heard they were coming to see you and I knew I couldn't pass that up. It's been a long four years without you." He drawled with a smirk.

"Somehow I doubt your bed has been empty for even a day since I left!" Jensen laughed. "Nathan, you make all the good girls go bad."

"Ain't that the truth!" He called with a light swat on her rear end causing her to squeal and fall into a fit of giggles. "I think we got an audience." He whispered with a glance over at the garage. "And blondie doesn't look happy about our reunion." He whispered in her ear.

"Better put me down then." Jensen suggested. "But I did miss you."

"Not half as much as you're pretending you did." He smirked. "If your plan is to piss off blondie and make him jealous I'd say it worked."

"Keep you're hand on my ass." Jensen whispered with a smile. "And I'll find a girl that can warm your bed tonight."

"Will she be you?" He asked with a grin.

"Come off it. We both know I haven't graced your bed for five years, I plan on making it six." Jensen snorted. "She'll be a nice six foot blonde with legs for days just like you like." She moved to his side and wrapped her arm where her legs had rested only a moment ago.

She looked over at the garage and saw Nate was right. They did have an audience, five guys that were working in the garage including Juice, Chibs, Tig, and Kip, Gemma had come out as well and she was standing right next to a fuming Jax. His lips were pulled tight over his teeth and his eyes had become hard.

"Did he do something to earn your wrath?" Nate asked with his lips pressed close to her forehead, his eyes trained in the same direction as her.

"This isn't my wrath. I'm just making sure he's worth pursuing." Jensen shrugged. "He has a kid in the NICU and a junkie ex-wife, not to mention some twisted love affair with a doctor." She gave a quick account of her flirtation. "I like this one but he comes with some drama."

"What do you call the people I dropped off?" He looked down at her.

"Family." Jensen shrugged.

"That's probably what he calls it too." Nate laughed loudly.

"Come on, I'll introduce you all to my friends." Jensen smiled. "Gemma, Jax these are my brother's Liam, Russell, and Leo." She pointed at each of them respectfully. "And this man candy was my next door neighbour till I hightailed it. Gemma this is the friend I was telling you about." She elbowed Nate to shake hands with Gemma. "Jesus, at least act like you were raised with some manners." She joked with a laugh.

Nathan grabbed Jax's hand with a hard glare.

"A pleasure." He murmured.

"Come on Nate, over here we have Juice, Kip, Chibs, and Tig. Liam you aren't allowed in there!" Jensen called in the same breath as she saw her bother inch towards a motorcycle. "Now, let's find you that leggy blonde." Jensen rolled her eyes. "Lord knows with your charm you are going to need the rest of the day to get them in your bed." She purposely made eye contact with Jax.

His face lost it's anger but confusion took it's place as Jensen moved away tugging him and Leo away from the group and towards the office to grab her bag and then towards the RV.

"Gemma, I will be back in an hour. I just have to give these guys directions home. Jax, if I don't see you later this afternoon I assume I will see you at my place tomorrow, about noon." She looked back at him with an appraising look, almost expectant, mostly curious, and entirely knowing.

She felt as if she were pulling a hustle, the same adrenaline coursed through her as she walked away. Her goal was to push him away only enough to bring him racing back, if she pushed too hard it would all have been for nothing. Usually that would mean next to nothing to her if she lost one there would just be a line of ten more. But this was different, if she pushed too hard Jax would bolt and she would have lost someone that she was actually gaining feelings for.

Jensen drove the Winnebago home with Liam in the moving truck behind them.

"So when you said Liam was driving for a little bit, what you meant was he drove most of the way." Jensen questioned as she took the next right.

"Well he took a little break in the middle there, but yeah. I though it was best not to tell you because Leo was never in the car with him."

"Sneaky." She raised both eyebrows towards him with a sideways jerk of her head.

"Omission of truth does not make a lie."

"You would make a fabulous lawyer if you didn't have so many arrests on your record."

"I actually got that from a law book. I was seeing this chick, a paralegal doing grunt work at the courthouse."

"How many times have I told you to stay away from the people you meet in jail? I don't give a rat's ass about what side of the law they are on it's about ten steps too close to the law!" Jensen ranted.

"It's not like it lasted much longer than a week. Gave her a little bit of grunt work of my own and sent her on her way." Liam bragged with a suggestive wink.

"A real class act, Liam." Jensen surmised as she pulled up to the house.

"Oh yeah, because dry humping some guy you haven't seen in four years is really setting the bar." Liam snorted.

"Let me show you around. It's a mess but it's liveable and we can fix it up as we go." She explained as she walked towards the house. "The best part is the garage. You can use it for whatever you need." She pointed over to a brick building behind the house.

They walked into the house and Jensen had to take in a breath. The kitchen, in plain view from the front door, was transformed. Instead of rotting cabinets with pealing floral designs there were brand new wood cabinets but that was only the beginning. Someone had installed a new backsplash to match the new countertops. Brand new black appliances glittered over at them. Nothing was top of the line but it was too nice to have come from the salvos, which was the only place Jensen knew they could afford.

"Liam! I'm so sorry about leaving like that, I should have talked to you before I just left." Cate gushed as she ran up to hug her brother.

"Cate, what did you do?" Jensen asked as she looked around to see the cans of paint placed in the corner of the room.

"Jensen there is a guy in the bedroom lying new flooring and he is going to tile the bathrooms too. Look at what we got done in the kitchen, isn't it beautiful?"

"Cate, we could get in a lot of trouble for this. I mean you must have cleaned out the hardware store. This isn't like taking a can of paint from the Lowes!" Jensen yelled.

"But I got us a new refrigerator." Cate pointed out. "It's not like it wasn't paid for, we just didn't pay for it. Tom was telling me that it's mostly from flippers that go south, they pay for the stuff but go belly up before they can use it."

"And just what did it take to convince him to install all this crap for us?"

"Nothing really. I just had to promise to go to his church with him." Cate revealed turning dark red.

"Great so he's a religious child molester, that makes me feel wonderful about this situation." Jensen laughed sarcastically.

"Excuse me ma'am." Some stranger with a crew cut called. "I couldn't help but over hear what y'all were discussing and I just wanted to clear up a few things. See I only work part time at Big Brother's. I'm a junior pastor at First Baptists, and I saw Cate heading down a dangerous path. I wanted to show her the True love of God."

"Right, and did the true love of God buy this new stuff?" Jensen raised an eyebrow. "Look no offence, Tom, I am sure you are a good guy and if you just want her to go to church I suppose I don't have a problem with that but the vested interest you have in her needs to stop. She's thirteen and I don't care if she's talking to the devil himself, I want you to stay away from her."

"What?" His eyes went wide. "She told me she was sixteen! I swear on the Holy Bible I wasn't trying anything." Tom raised his hands.

"Sixteen is still gonna land you in jail for the better part of three years." Jensen shot back. "And I would be careful about the swearing, from what I hear your God isn't all that forgiving. Get out of here." Jensen pointed towards the door.

They watched as Tom ducked to grab is tool belt and headed out the door without looking at anybody.

Jensen rounded on Cate breathing hard through her nose, trying to calm her anger.

"Why? Why do you always find the perverts? For someone that doesn't want children you sure are doing everything in your power to change that!"

"I got what we needed, more than we needed! This was the W, just what we were talking about."

"I thought we were talking about some new cabinets not a whole new house." Jensen sighed. She couldn't fault Cate for seizing the opportunity as much as she wanted to. "I have to get back to work. You guys make yourselves comfortable, start unpacking, whatever you want."

"Wait we have something we need to show you." Liam grabbed at her arm. "Come on it's in the U-Haul." He cocked his head back through the door and lead the way out.

He opened the door and for the second time in the hour Jensen let out a large breath.

"Did you guys hold up a hospital or something?" Jensen exclaimed as she picked up a package of gauze.

"Better, a medical supply truck. We were at a truck stop and the driver left the thing unlocked." Liam raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah well his mind was on the hooker he picked up." Russell laughed as he elbowed his older brother.

"Take it to the garage. I assume this means you all are back in business?" Jensen called as the boys both picked up boxes and began unloading.

"Were the O'Halloran brothers! Were we ever really out of business?" Russell laughed in response. "Spread the word to all your biker friends. If they are anything like the Iron Horsemen we'll be needed in a week."

"Hey, are you gonna stick around for a few days or are you already off to see those Cali beaches?" Jensen's voice became soft as she turned to look at Nate.

"I figured I would stay a couple days and help with the house. I used to change Catie's diapers so you can guarantee I won't lay a finger on her." Nate smiled as he punched her in the arm lightly.

"I'm not sure if that would stop her from putting a hand or two on you." Jensen smirked. "Are you up for that?"

"I was born up for that." He gave a suggestive flex of his mussels and a wink.

Jensen rolled her eyes.

"I have to go to work." She slightly pushed him away. "I'll be back in a few hours."

She drove away laughing at the situation she had gotten herself into. She had two guys setting up a hospital in her garage, her sister stealing them a new house, and a brother that had stowed away in the back of her car.

"Leo, you can stop hiding. I can hear your breathing from up here." Jensen called.

Leo's head popped up from the back seat.

"Hi Jen!" He called as he monkey climbed into the passenger seat.

"You know I would have thought you would have forgotten me. You were only two when I left." Jensen admitted, thankful that hadn't been true.

"Cate talked about you a lot, she told me stories about how you took care of her. She said that you took care of me too but that something really bad happened and you had to leave." Leo stated in a matter of fact tone. "I had the chicken pox last week. Do you want to see my scar?" He changed the subject with a beam.

"What kind of stories did Cate tell you?" She asked, unable to hide her curiosity.

"Stuff about how you would keep the bad guys away and how you rescued me from a bad lady when I was this little." He cupped his hands together to indicate his size.

"You were a little larger that that." Jensen chuckled as she reached over to ruffle his hair.

"She said you had to give her something from your insides to get me. What was it?" His tone had become serious.

"I gave her something I wasn't using and I got you in exchange. I think I got the best end of that deal." Jensen sighed, unsure about what to say.

"But it was inside you! How did she get it?"

"They cut me open and took it before sewing me back up." Jensen explained after a moment.

"Like how Liam and Russell do?" He asked again.

"Yeah just like that." She parked and walked over to the passenger door to let him out.

"I'm sorry you had to do that for me." He finally stated as he climbed out of the car.

"Don't be. You were worth it! Besides I bet no one told you what I had to do for Liam and I'm not so sure if he was worth it." She smiled and held out her hand. "Now you know you can't come to work with me everyday. We are going to get you back in school as soon as we can and you are going to make all sorts of new friends. You're so cute you might even get a girl or two."

"Yuck!" Leo exclaimed loudly, his voice echoing off the garage walls. "Girls are yucky! They have cooties!" he yelled gaining people's attention once again. This time Jensen didn't mind so much.

"What about me? I'm a girl, do I have cooties?" She asked with mock horror.

"No, you're a Jensen, Jensen's don't have cooties." He explained in a matter of fact voice.

At this she heard laughter from several of the men.

"Well I'm glad to hear I have a clean bill of health." She chuckled. "Here," She pulled out the envelope Gemma had given her and handed him a few dollars. "They have a vending machine here that gives you ice cream. Go pick out a good one."

His eyes lit up as he took the money and ran off in the direction she pointed out, only stopping once because he almost ran head first into a wall.

"Hey, Juice, I wanted to ask you a question." Jensen sidled up to him and followed after him as he walked around a car.

"Ask away." He murmured as he ducked back under the hood of a Beemer.

"So you might or might not know about a motorcycle club in Ohio called the Iron Horsemen." She started. Juice showed no recognition so she continued on. "I mean they aren't really big game, drug dealers mostly, some cartel involvement, more than a few junkies." She rambled on for a moment before noticing Juice's gaze. "Sorry, anyways, so like I said small time guys that manage to injure themselves more than they are injured by anyone else. But they needed a doctor to stitch them up and pull out the bullet rounds, and my brother isn't a doctor but he picked up a few things."

"What are you saying?" Juice asked as he looked up with a confused face.

"For the past six years my brother's have acted as mob doctor for the Iron Horsemen and now I have a garage full of medical supplies that they are planning to turn into a makeshift hospital, one that won't be any use to anybody if know one knows about it." She raised her eyebrows and leaned in.

"Look I don't know what you think the Sons of Anarchy is or why they would need a doctor on call." Juice started with a shake of his head.

"Don't play that shit with me! I'm not an idiot and I have more than a small amount of a criminal in my blood. I really don't care; you're doing what you need to do. I'm just letting you know about something I need to do. You don't think I noticed you tense up when I mention the IRA? Or when I made jokes about illegal money makers?" She lectured. "Now I could just go to the skinheads I saw a few days ago and let them know, but I'm coming to you."

"Come with me." Juice turned away and made a small beckoning motion with his hand.

"Leo, keep up." Jensen called as Leo trotted out from around a corner with a drumstick smeared across his face.

They walked across the yard and into the grey building Jensen had seen all of the employees disappear into at one time or another. Jensen felt her mouth drop open as she saw that it was a lounge complete with a bar and pool table. Several older men sat around smoking cigars and appraising some young woman's ass.

"Clay, this lady had a business proposal for the cub." Juice called as he sat down nest to the old men.

"You're the bitch from the road whose dog didn't like me. Something funny about your name." the man with silver hair remembered as he pointed his cigar at her.

"Leo, why don't you go wait outside?" Jensen offered after a moment. "My name is Jensen O'Halloran. I've been working here for a week." She reminded him as she watched Leo walk out.

"That's right, to stop you from working for the Nords I remember now." He smiled in a way that made the hair on the back of Jensen's neck stand on end. "What is this business proposal you have for us?"

"It's not my business, I keep my nose out of it. My brother's just moved into town and back home they had an arrangement with the local motorcycle club. They were looking to see if they could form a similar relationship out here." Jensen explained, hoping to keep it as vague as she could.

"And just what would the Sons of Anarchy need from two teenage boys?" He smirked with a small chuckle and an appraising look at Jensen.

"They patch people up, remove bullets, set broken bones, that kind of thing. I've already explained this to Juice; I don't really care what you guys do to earn a living, this is what my family does and they are pretty good at it. There are some benefits to using our services; we have our own makeshift hospital. That mean's any incriminating injuries aren't going to be here, keeping this business as clean as you decide to keep it." Jensen began selling the idea as she saw the spark of interest in Clay's eye.

"What's in it for you?" He finally asked.

"In return we would need a way to restock our supplies and assurances that CPS stays out of our hair." Jensen smiled. "No money, we would get that from the other business we bring in. We would be on call as long as our agreement is kept."

She knew she should let Liam make the negotiations but they needed this more than he knew, especially with a new baby on the way. If the hospital caught an inkling of their mother's alcohol consumption Russell, Cate, Leo, and the baby would be put in the system.

"Just what other business would you be taking in?" Clay's eyebrows knotted together.

"Most likely whatever we can get from Oakland and anyone around here that can't got to a hospital for whatever reason." Jensen shrugged. "Like I said we just moved in."

"Your arrangement with the last MC was it the same?" Clay asked quietly.

"No, that was a straight up cash agreement. Back there we had other means of waylaying CPS."

"I'm going to have to put this to a vote we should have word for you and your family by tomorrow." He nodded and stood up. "In the mean get back to work."

"Yes sir. I look forward to hearing from you." She held out her hand.

"We will probably have some needs that will have to be met apart from medical services." Clay informed her as he grasped at her hand.

"Other needs?" She questioned wondering if this was the part where he told her he wanted some sort of sexual favour.

"There are some people that are better left untreated and we would have to know that you wouldn't interfere with God's plan."

"Right, well if you accept our side of the agreement I am sure we can work something out about that." She let out a breath and silently thanked whatever God was out there.

Clay just nodded again and walked away. Jensen stood there for a moment before remembering Leo was outside and probably getting in some trouble. She walked out and saw his puff of red talking to Chibs. Jensen jogged over, hoping he wasn't in any sort of trouble.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to leave him alone for so long." Jensen apologised as soon as she was in hearing distance.

"Jensen, tell him you can sing the soldier song! He doesn't believe me!" Leo demanded with a small pout.

"Who taught you the soldier song?" Jensen jerked her head back in surprise. "Let me guess, Cate?" She supplied the answer with out waiting.

"She said it was my responsibility to learn the song but the words sound funny." He explained.

"If Cate had it her way we would all be foot soldiers for the Kings." Jensen rolled her eyes. "Listen to me, you don't need to learn the song if you don't want to. Our grandfather taught me and Liam, and Liam and I taught Cate and Russell."

"So you do actually know the soldier's song?" Chibs asked with a raised brow.

"I told you I was Irish! Wasn't it you that gave me leprechaun status?" She exclaimed. "My grandfather came to America from the Fourth Green Field. Why do you care so much?" She asked suddenly curious.

"He talks like Granddad." Leo threw his hands up with wide eyes.

"No he doesn't. And how would you know how Granddad used to talk?" Jensen's head spun to face Leo.

"Liam does his voice sometimes when he makes breakfast and he says those funny words. Eringo or something like that."

"Not a word." Jensen sighed. "No, seriously why do you care? Ever since I got here my heritage has been talked about and I can't figure out why. Juice tenses up every time I joke about the IRA and you seem to want to know just how Irish I am."

"It would just bring back memories to hear it." Chibs admitted looking down at his hands.

"Well, I don't believe you. I think there is something you are trying to figure out and I am only going to tell you once, it is going to be faster if you just ask me. As for the song I know it and Leo knows it. If you want to hear it I would suggest you ask Leo." Jensen shrugged as she walked away.

As she turned back to see if Leo was following after her and saw Chibs swinging the six year old up onto his shoulders and walk him back to the garage. She shook her head. Leo was young but already he knew just how to play so that he got his way. From the window she saw them head over to the vending machine, Leo's eyes the size of baseballs.

She worked for the remaining hours without being able to really work. Her focus was on the deal she had just offered Clay. Six rolled around and she packed up her bags just as Gemma walked back in. She smiled but couldn't bring herself to say anything. She just walked out of the garage to find Leo before heading home. She heard the last bars of the familiar song and walked towards it. Leo was sitting on a metal table with a Popsicle dripping down his hand as he finished singing.

"Just how many times have you had him sing it now?" She questioned with a laugh.

"Only a few times." Chibs chuckled as he stood up.

"Six times! And I got six ice creams." Leo smiled.

"Great, get him all hopped up on sugar just in time for me to deal with him." She huffed a little. "Come on, choir boy, I think you need some real food. Chibs I will see you come Monday."

"Good bye Mister Chibs, thank you for the ice cream." Leo smiled as Jensen dragged him along behind her. "Can I come to work with you tomorrow? I liked the people here they are nice." Leo babbled as he climbed into the car.

"No, but only because I'm not coming to work tomorrow. I have a date and you have to help your brothers get the house ready."

"Where are you going on your date?"

"I think we are going to go see a baby in the hospital and then we are going to go to a carnival."

"I want to go to a carnival!" Leo bounced around.

"I know you do, hun, but right now we really can't afford it. Next time I promise." Jensen looked over guiltily. "I'm sorry. I don't even think it's going to be much fun, there is a good chance there will be clowns." Jensen gave a false shiver.

"I understand." Leo looked dejected but covered it with a large smile. "Will you bring me back something?"

"You bet, little man, anything you want." Jensen reached over and ruffled his hair. They pulled up to the house and got out. Jensen could hear yelling coming from inside. "I think your sister is going at it with Nate." Jensen smirked as they walked nearer.

"And I'm telling you for the last time, you are doing that wrong!" Cate was yelling as they opened the door.

"No, I'm not! This is how you lay a floor, I've done this once or twice and I don't need a crappy set of instructions without any words!" Nate hollered right back swinging a hammer around wildly.

"They said to start at the door and work your way to the end of the room!" Cate explained sounding furious.

"It's a picture of a window with a line through it! How do you know what it means?" He looked exasperated.

"All right that's enough everyone back to their corners." Jensen finally broke in. "God, I didn't bring you all out here for to fight like cats and dogs! Can't I get a moments peace? Where are your brothers?" She turned to Cate and looked at her expectantly.

"How should I know, they holed up in the garage right after you left." Cate brushed her off.

"Great, Cate why don't you start with paint? In the bedrooms, far, far away from Nate." Jensen suggested with a look that made it clear she wasn't really suggesting anything.

"He's doing it wrong!" Cate grumbled as she grabbed a bucket of paint.

"Then we are just going to live with crooked floors and we will all be just fine." Jensen snapped back as she walked outside. "Russell, Liam, I have news." She called as she crossed the paved backyard that was covered in leaves and what looked like cat shit. "Holy crap, you guys weren't kidding about the medical supply truck."

"Look at all this stuff we got." Liam grabbed at her hand and dragged her over to the shelves that already had cartons of organised supplies. "We want to put a sink in over there," he pointed out an empty corner, "Nothing fancy just a plastic bucket and a spigot. There is already electricity, and we have a bed."

"It's supposed to be a massage table but we made due." Russell explained as he put yet another box onto the shelf.

"Hop on up! Let Dr O'Halloran have a look." Liam patted the table.

"You see I think that was supposed to be some sort of a pickup line which is concerning because I am your sister and I would like to remind you that it's illegal. Keep it in your pants and never mention it again."

"Actually I was referring to your hand, and the shiner. You realise you look like a mess." Liam smiled as he patted the table again. "Come on, I'll sew that back up for you. It's still bleeding."

"Not as much as it was when I got it and it doesn't hurt as much anymore." Jensen yammered as she hoisted herself up on the table.

"I'm sure beating up a hooker really helped the healing process. Cate told me what you did for her." He answered to her open-mouthed gaping. "She called you the W word. She didn't know that was an off limit word, but I guess a break was too much to ask for."

"She shouldn't need a break, it's not a nice word." Jensen shrugged.

"Cate says you bit her?" Liam raised both is eyebrows and looked up at her from her hand.

"How else do you get a dog to behave? Gotta show her who's the top dog." Jensen couldn't manage another shrug at some nonchalance she didn't have. She wasn't even proud of her actions, but she knew she had to look like she was.

Liam made a motion over to Russell, behind Jensen, and Russell started chatting.

"So Hank is nice. He seems a little overexcited by all the people." Russell spoke quickly causing Jensen to turn around to look at him.

Before she could ask what was wrong with him she felt a stab in her left hand close to her cut. She twirled around with a glare at Liam and saw an empty syringe in his hand.

"For the love of all that is good in this world, tell me you did not just put that in my hand!" She yelled. "You know I don't like drugs. Russell, how could you do this to me? It's not fair you ganged up on me!" She called as she turned back to look at Russell. 'Traitor!' She mouthed over at him, gaining only a shrug.

"Yeah but I'm not a doctor, I'm your brother and I don't need to ask what's best for you. I know what's best for you and when you are just being hard headed." Liam shrugged.

"Don't do it again."

"Don't slice your hand open again." He warned with a glare.

"So, I have a date tomorrow. He's supposed to come around here about noon and just as a warning he might want to check out your operation. He also might mention a deal that you have no idea about."

"One in which I exchange medical services for large amounts of cash? Because that's the only deal I am going to make." Liam declared without looking up.

"Not exactly, I put a deal on to the table for a safeguard from CPS and a way to keep your supplies in stock."

"And what are we going to do for cash?" Liam let out a sigh and frowned slightly.

"I thought you might want to do some work in Oakland, get your name out to the gangs in that area." Jensen smiled, trying to plead her case.

"So more work for me in exchange for protection from an agency that hasn't gotten a hint of us in this state?" Liam moved away and took the stained gauze over to a trash bin.

"Well I have a feeling that they are gonna catch wind of us soon."

"How would they do that? Unless Russell and Leo get arrested it's not gonna happen!" Liam shouted with a bit more force.

"Let's put aside that the idea that Russell or Leo going to jail isn't that much of a stretch and think of other reasons they might be giving us a hard time." Jensen lifted herself off the table and moved towards him.

"The only other time CPS comes around is when there's another O'Halloran thrown into the mix." Jensen waited as realisation swept over Liam's face. "She's pregnant again?" His jaw dropped open and he ran his hand over his eyes. "She's like fifty years old! How does this even happen?"

"She's forty-two. When a man and a woman love each other very much," She started with a glare.

"More like when a woman drunkenly throws herself at the fist sleaze-ball with a dick." Liam sighed as he leaned against a stack of unpacked boxes.

"I know, but she's what we got, and by February we will have another crawler around here." Jensen joined him against the boxes.

"Do we get to name him this time?"

"I'm going to depend on it, we can't have another Leonardo running around here." Jensen sighed. "So we need this deal, I'm sorry if this means more work for you."

"Nah," He waived his hand. "I like this stuff. It won't be that much extra work. So a date, is this someone you want to really invest in?"

Jensen paused to think about it for a moment.

"I think so." She finally responded. "He's different from the others."

"Well, you know what they say, patterns make people old." Liam smirked as Jensen whacked him upside the head.

"Thanks for putting me back together." She called as she walked back out the door.

"Put some ice on that eye."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Point is I'm going to be gone most of the day and I might not be home till late or, God willing, very, very, early." She smirked as she reached the door.

"Get 'em tiger."

"Every time."


	8. Chapter 8

**Towards the end there is the justification for the M rating. If you are sensitive to sex scenes I suggest you don't read it. If you are looking for my opinion of writing about sex go check out my profile and I explain my philosophies there. Enjoy**

Jensen woke up that morning with a crick in her neck from sleeping on the floor with a pile of blankets. She looked around groggily and saw Cate and Russell huddled together on one side of the room still asleep and Leo sprawled on top of a very awake Liam. She walked over and gently pulled the sleeping boy off of her brother and held out her hand to help him up. She put her finger to her lips and pointed off to the kitchen.

"Do you let him do that all the time?" She whispered as she emptied a bottle of water into the coffee maker.

"Only when he can't sleep." Liam grunted.

"You're spoiling him."

"Giving him a place to sleep isn't generally considered spoiling a child. He needs a bed, we all do. As much as I appreciate the family love I just don't think it's long term."

"Have I mentioned how grateful I am you brought all this stuff?" Jensen tried to change the topic as she gestured to the chipped crockery. "I have something to add to the vault. Do you think it's worth having a family meeting?"

"Depends on how much it is." Liam shrugged.

"Not much, I haven't counted it or anything but about five hundred." Jensen was almost ashamed of how small the number was.

"You are pulling down five hundred a week? Jen, I know when you were working in Reno you were making double this in a night."

"Yeah but we can't go there. I've burnt my bridges there, besides I like it here. We can raise a family here, and you can work a little more. Russell and Cate can finish school where no one knows their father." Jensen listed off the things she had been thinking from the beginning. "All we have to do is get our hands on some mattresses."

"You know we couldn't have brought the beds with us. We couldn't fit them anywhere, we'll get cheep ones and make due." Liam offered.

"No, Liam that is where you are lying to me! Because you could have fit the mattresses in the van but you chose not to. Which I can't really understand why unless you knew that you were going run into an unguarded medical truck." It took her a moment after the words were out of her mouth that she realised what happened. "You couldn't have known about the truck, which means you had the mattresses, didn't you? And you just decided to leave them on the curb?"

"Something had to go. And this is going to bring us one hundred times what the beds were worth. What would you have had me do? Just seen all of that and walked away because there wasn't enough room in the U-Haul?"

"I would have given up something less important than something we would use all the time!" Jensen yelled still mindful not to wake the rest of the house. "What about the TV? You didn't have to bring that, it's large and obtrusive and butt ugly. You could have sold it and gotten some value out of it rather than just dumping it on the side of the road."

"But then what would we have done with the video games?"

"I can tell you just where you can put the video games!" Jensen fumed as she walked away.

She let out a small yawn as she walked outside and raised her arms over her head. She scratched absentmindedly over her scars, lifting the hem of her oversized Ramones t-shirt up to expose the flannel boxers she had nicked from Nate last night. Jensen looked over at the Winnebago and let out a snort. She could see people moving around in the RV and three minutes later a tall blonde in a dress that made her look shrink wrapped rather than clothed stepped out. She had a pair of stiletto pumps hooked on her fingers and her hair looked out of control. Nate hung his head out of the RV just enough to plant a wet kiss on her before waving goodbye.

Jensen just watched as the blonde walked off until she made eye contact with her. Jensen managed a rather awkward wave and pointed to the mug in her hand, offering coffee. The woman waved it off and walked back to her car.

"Morning Nate!" Jensen called as she saw Nate stick his head out of the RV.

"I love seeing you in my clothes, sweetheart!" He shot back with a wave.

She looked down at her watch and chuckled at the time.

"Alright up and at 'em!" She called as she walked back into the house. She aimed a kick a one of the lumps and laughed when they let out a yelp. "Come on, day's a wasting! It's already almost eleven and we still have about a million things to do before noon!" She exclaimed as she shook Leo awake. "We have one hour to get the rest of the stuff from the van and move it in. Look at that, my band of ragamuffins." She beamed as she looked back at her siblings, all in different stages of alertness.

"Why do we have to do all of this in an hour?" Russell complained as he rubbed the sleep out of his eye.

"Because she has a hot date coming over and she doesn't want to look like she slept on the floor with her family." Liam rolled his eyes as he walked towards the door. "Come on grab a box." He hollered, already at the door of the car.

Jensen slipped away for a moment to get changed before Jax came by looking for her. When she came back out she heard loud music coming from the porch and saw Nate sitting with a beer in one hand, his other resting on an ancient boom-box that was emanating a hard beat.

"Are we suddenly back in the 90s?" She laughed as he jumped forward, clearly not expecting her.

"Oh, Jensen, you could make a good dog break his leash" Nate crowed as he stood up and twirled her around. "This guy better be worth it." He smiled as he brought her in closer.

"Look at these heels, do you think I would wear them if he wasn't?" She laughed as she pushed away from him as she pointed down at the black leather boots she was wearing. "I feel like I should have a whip in my hand and be asking who's your daddy!" She laughed at the image.

"Hey you can whip me any time." Nate whispered in her ear softly.

"Thanks but no thanks, Nathan." She pushed away yet again as a new song played off the CD. "Really? We couldn't find something a little more ghetto?" She chuckled as she recognised the song.

As the song started to play she started swinging to the beat, trying to make herself look more masculine, a much harder task since her clothes clung to her curves emphasising her hips and chest. She began lip-synching along with the song looking directly at Nate. Her hips were still swaying with a small bounce as she tried to imitate the moves she had seen rappers pull in music videos. She didn't hear Jax pulled up. He stepped off of his bike but rather than introduce himself he leaned against the bike and watched as she shimmied along with the song. As the song finally ended he broke his silence and started clapping loudly and rather slowly. Jensen spun around quickly her face flushed bright red and her mouth hanging open. She had been unaware of any other viewers.

"Jax! Wow, I didn't expect you here right now. Um, crap, just let me get my bag." She muttered as she ran back in and grabbed her purse. She took a deep breath and walked back out trying to hold on to whatever dignity she had left. "Ready!" She smiled a little franticly.

"Actually I was told to inspect the hospital you came in selling yesterday. Apparently you were a sight to see."

"Clay said that? I got the impression he was a little less than impressed." Jensen's eyebrow shot into her hairline.

"What would make you say that?" Jax chuckled as he walked closer to her.

Jensen opened her mouth to respond but was cut off by Leo clearing his throat as if he had been a lifetime smoker, and was sixty rather than six. He mimed smoking a cigar and cocked his head to the side slightly.

"You're the bitch from the side of the road whose dog didn't like me." He repeated in a scarily good imitation of Clay.

"Leonardo O'Halloran, I am going to wash your mouth out with soap!" Cate called as she poked her head around a box she was rifling through. "Come here you little shit-head!" She yelled as she chased after him.

"Just what she thinks she is teaching him about language we may never know." Jensen laughed as she turned to Jax. "But that is almost exactly what Clay told me when I talked to him yesterday. They weren't exactly reassuring words."

"Clay is a personality." Jax shrugged.

"He doesn't like me, I don't like him, and we agree to keep our distance." Jensen shrugged, "I don't have to win them all, I just have to win the ones I care about." She started walking back to the garage. "Liam and Russell are back here. I told them to have the place ready by noon but I would bet money that the place is still a mess." She rolled her eyes.

"No not there! I can't reach it if it's over there!" Liam complained as he snatched away a box of something from Russell's hands and put it next to a large cardboard box. "I'll find a place for it later."

"You're doing it again! I can hand it to you, you don't need everything in reaching distance." Russell sighed.

Neither Liam nor Russell was aware of the couple watching from the doorway.

"Do you remember the time I was setting that compound fracture? Big black guy bleeding out on the kitchen table, yelling at me that if I didn't patch him up he was going to blow my cojones off with an AK-47. Where were you? Oh that's right, you were no where to be found!"

"I was protecting my own damn cojones!" Russell shouted back as he moved the same box across the room. "Quit moving things! We have that guy coming at noon, he's gonna want to see that we are at least somewhat put together."

Jensen cleared her throat and chuckled slightly as the two boys turned around.

"Guys, this is the guy." She made wide eyes at Liam as she thumbed over at Jax. "Why don't you try to sell yourselves?"

"No thanks, this one's too ugly to prostitute." Russell smirked as he held out his hand. "It's nice to meet you."

"Not to mention, I don't have to sell myself, I'm just that good." Liam shook off Russell's insult with a smirk.

Jensen rolled her eyes, they were falling into the same pattern they always did when they were talking up their skills. Russell fell over himself with smiles and kindness while Liam acted calm and cocky, as if he wasn't just as hungry for the deal as everyone else. People tended to be drawn to Liam's confidence but stuck around because Russell was the only one that didn't treat them like the dirt on his boot.

"So this is your set up?" Jax raised an eyebrow and looked around slowly.

"Yeah, I'm good enough that I don't need a fancy hospital." Liam looked away and began sorting through a shelf of supplies before moving the same box Russell had just put down.

"How many bullets have you actually removed?" Jax shot at him, seemingly not deterred by Liam's cold response.

"Exactly none." Liam looked over at him and raised an eyebrow, practically begging him to ask the question.

"What do you mean? I thought that was your whole job?" Jax took the bait.

"No, my job is to make sure the highest bidder makes it out alive. You see doctors on TV scrambling to look for some stupid piece of metal lodged in some man's ass and suddenly you think you're a doctor? The best thing to do is clean it, stich it up, and get them on their way. Less blood, shorter recovery time, and a heck of a lot less work for me." Liam snorted.

"You aren't a doctor." Jax stated, though he didn't seem put off by Liam.

"That's right. See, a doctor would be bound by some oath to help all those that need it. I'm just some kid in his garage playing with a knife, I get to help whomever I damn well please. That and I didn't go to medical school." Liam finally walked up to Jax and held his hand up. "I'm Liam, by the way, we talked on the phone about a week ago. You implied you were sleeping with my sister."

'Charmer.' Russell mouthed over to Jensen with a small eye roll.

"Jax." He responded without flinching, he grabbed Liam's hand.

"I remember. Well, Jax, if you want to see some of my work look at her hand," he pointed over at Jensen. "Fresh stitches, no sign of infection, and if she stops opening the stitches there won't be a giant scar."

"She got those at the hospital, I was with her." Jax shook his head.

"She split those open," Liam's glare turned on Jensen. "Beating one of your whores."

"Watch it." Jensen glared.

"We still only have your word that you can do what you say you can." Jax knocked his head to the side.

"So the first time you have someone you need patched up send them our way, the deal won't start till you see what he can do." Russell cut in, looking to avoid a complete train wreck.

Liam muttered something unintelligible about more work for him but remained quiet at Russell bargained.

"And just what is it you do?" Jax looked at Russell sceptically.

"Account manager. Liam's great at patching up the hurt but really he can't count past twenty, and that's using his fingers and toes. I make sure everyone's paid up, we don't do hand-outs."

"And what do you do if they don't pay up?" Jax chuckled.

"We have Jensen beat the crap out of them." Russell turned to his sister. "She's scrappy but we like to keep her around."

"I always carry a roll of pennies in my pocket." Jensen rolled her eyes.

"And all this time I thought you were just excited to see me." Jax looked over at her with a smile, earning a glare from Jensen.

"Oh, like I have never heard that one before. What was it Frank used to call it? Something crude."

"The rocket in your pocket that jingles when you tinkle." Liam cut in with a snort. "That man was a piece of work."

"Any debts left unpaid get dealt with, but I can assume that won't be an issue with the arrangement we have proposed." Liam cut in again, his face set in a stone mask as he drew his fingers together at the tips and pressed them to his mouth. Jensen thought it was an attempt to make himself look older but all she could see was a young boy trying to imitate some actor in a movie.

"We've discussed it as a club, we are prepared to accept your offer with a few provisions. We know you are new to the area so I'll give you a run down of the gangs and let you know which ones we are okay for you to work with. Jensen said you would be working in Oakland; we need any one with Mayan ink off your operating table, and that goes for the Nords here too. We have a relationship with the one-niners and can put a word in for you. Everyone else is fair game unless you hear otherwise."

"I don't have a problem with that unless I'm seeing a lot of Mayan blood out there." Liam continued to sort through a box of pre-packaged sterilized syringes.

"What my brother means is that if our profits start taking a beating from this deal we are going to seek payment for a blind eye." Russell translated quickly. "Need to work to eat, need to eat to live." He shrugged with a self-deprecating smile.

"If that happens we can talk a new deal." Jax nodded as he held out his hand to shake on their deal.

"Well now that that's all taken care of I could use a drink." Jensen waved at her brothers. "Liam, I think Cate is trying to kill Leo, so if you could take care of that while I'm gone that would be great." She moved her hand to grab at Jax's and lead the way out towards the driveway.

"Just when do you plan on getting back?"

"When I get bored probably." Jensen shrugged as she walked away with a backwards wave.

"You plan on getting bored with me?" Jax questioned with a smirk as they walked towards his bike.

"Not tonight." She grinned back. "Come on, I want to see the Teller man that has really been on my mind. How has he been?"

"He had another surgery to correct the problem with his heart but he looks good now." Jax explained as he handed her a helmet. "It's going to be months before I see him out of the hospital."

He revved the engine as she climbed on the back and sped out of the driveway, spraying Nate with dirt. Jensen heard his shouts and barked a laugh.

"If you don't like him you could just say so." She whispered in his ear.

"I don't like him." Jax yelled over the roar of the engine.

"What do you want me to do about it?" Jensen yelled back.

"Nothing yet." She could hear the smug smile in his voice.

She could see the hospital coming up on their right and took a deep breath through her nose. Jensen loved the feeling in the pit of her stomach where something flip-flopped every time he pushed his bike faster down the wide streets.

"Are you coming?" Came Jax's voice as he shook Jensen out of her thoughts. She hadn't noticed that they had come to a stop in the hospital parking lot.

"Yeah, sure, sorry, I was just thinking about how different riding on the back of your bike is to riding with Finn. You're better." Jensen smirked with a small chuckle.

"Thanks darlin', we have all night for you to see just how much better I am." Jax turned away and started walking toward the elevator.

"Do you mind if we take the stairs?" Jensen asked, her eyes darting to the elevator.

"Don't tell me you are afraid of elevators?" Jax chuckled as he looked back at her.

"I'm not afraid of anything. I just prefer to take the stairs when I can." She shook her head slightly ignoring the sweat that had accumulated in the creases of her palm.

"It's six floors up." Jax informed her as he looked down at her shoes.

"So we can take the elevator. No big deal." Jensen smiled. "As long as I get to see your baby boy it's all okay." She refused to acknowledge the nerves that had suddenly coiled in her stomach. She shook her head slightly and tried to play it off like she was just excited to see Abel. She bounced slightly consciously making her hips sway as she walked in front of Jax.

The elevator ride could have taken no longer than five minutes but it was long enough for Jensen to feel the crushing weight on her chest, beads of sweat appeared on her brow, and she noticed the walls start to warp around her.

"I brought something for him, but I don't know if he will like it." Jensen tried to ignore the strong beating of her heart.

"What did you bring him?" He asked as they stepped out on the sixth floor.

Jensen immediately felt as if she could breath again and let out a true smile as they wandered through the halls.

"Something I dug up last night in all the boxes. Liam brought the baby stuff when he thought we could sell it, but when I told him we were having another it became a stroke of luck." She opened her purse and pulled out a ragged brown stuffed bear with one eye missing and his arm clearly re-stitched with thick black strings. "I bought him for Liam when I thought the best way to raise a child was showering him in gifts I couldn't afford. Liam named him Theodore."

"Expecting?" Jax suddenly turned around looking angry and confused as his eyes darted down to her stomach.

"Me?" Jensen couldn't help but let out a snort as she realised what he thought. "No, my mother she likes to pop these things out every now and again just to prove she's not dead yet. Never likes to take care of them though; she prefers to leave that to us. Don't worry I'm not pregnant." Jensen kept walking as she shoved the bear at Jax. "Wow," she let out a breath as she saw Abel's incubator. "He looks so much better. Would you just look at those baby blues? You had better watch out, this kid is going to be a heart breaker!" She slipped her hands into the incubator and placed them on his stomach.

"He's a fighter." Jax placed his hand on the thick plastic.

"So how is it working with your past?" Jensen suddenly questioned with her eyes still trained Abel.

"What?"

"The doctor, I forgot her name, Sara, or something like that." Jensen tried to keep the cool tone in her voice but felt as though there was more bite than there needed to be.

"Tara. I asked her to take herself off Abel's care. My mom isn't fond of her and it was really best to leave my past in the past." Jax explained with a shrug.

"And you're ex?" This time she managed to keep her voice more relaxed.

"She's not in the picture. She's getting the help she needs. Why the sudden interest?" Jensen felt a large warm hand press into her lower back.

This time she didn't stop him. She smiled up at him and intentionally wiggled her ass just a little bit.

"I'm trying to determine if you are as available as you are making yourself seem. I do a lot of things but casual ain't one of them. I can't do casual with the kids on this coast, especially with another baby on the way. It just won't work; I won't have the time for it and I know that you are new to this fatherhood thing but you won't have free time either."

"I don't need that much free time."

"Let me lay the next three years out for you. After Abel leaves the hospital you won't just have a newborn on your hands, you are going to have a sick newborn to deal with. That means medications, numerous doctors visits, lab tests, midnight health scares, you name it he's going to have it. So you are going to go back to work, with your job there might be overnight trips doing God knows what and you won't be able to see him. So instead of prolonging your trip and kicking back on the road you will ride through the night to see him again. And when you finally make it back home and relieve whatever nanny you've hired, you will want nothing more than to crawl into bed.

"But you can't do that because you just realised you are out of diapers and formula. So you have to take Abel, in the car you have to buy, out to the market. You think it won't wake him up, but it will, and then you have a screaming baby, an armload of groceries, and a headache. But this isn't just one day; this is the next four years of your life. You are going to have, maybe, three hours free time in a week." Jensen took a large breath as she finished her rant.

"Have you thought about this a lot?" Jax asked with a frown.

"No, I've lived this more than once. It's a great ride, knucklebones, but it isn't something you do causally." Jensen smiled as she looked at him. "I like you, and I think we would make a really badass team. I'm not saying we jump into anything, but I want to make sure you are just as free as I am just in case."

Jensen's head tilted up as she leaned further into Jax.

"What about your past?" Jax questioned as she moved her hands out of Abel's incubator.

"Nate?" Jensen giggled. "Nate helped me out when I was younger with a guy that was giving me some trouble. We dated for about a month after that, mostly because I thought he had earned it after cleaning up my mess. He's more of a brother than a lover. Besides he's leaving in a few days, going to see the California beaches." Jensen moved closer to Jax and licked her lips, tasting the lip-gloss she had applied earlier. "I'm going to kiss you now."

"If you want to throw yourself at me, I guess there's nothing I can really do about that." Jax's voice had become huskier as Jensen moved closer.

"Damn straight." She smiled as she pressed her lips to his.

She leaned up against him and wrapped her arms around his neck. She felt his hands press firmly into her backside. Jensen had just moved her hands into Jax's hair securing his lips to hers when she heard a small squeak from the door. The noise caused them both to spring away from each other. Jensen wiped at her mouth with the backside of her hand. The nurse that interrupted them blushed crimson and muttered something about needing to change Abel's IV.

"Come on, let's get out of her way." Jensen tried to smile kindly. "We were going to go to the carnival anyways." She grabbed at Jax's hand. She was about to take the first step away from Abel when she suddenly turned back and slipped one hand back in to the incubator. "Keep fighting buddy, Lord knows I'm fighting for you." She whispered as she let his little fingers wrap around her index finger.

She extracted her finger from his grasp and moved towards the door. Her right hand still encased in Jax's grasp. They moved down the halls in silence and stepped into the elevator without a thought to Jensen's earlier worries.

Jensen was still so excited by their kiss that she didn't think about it as she stepped in but was immediately reminded as the doors closed. Once again the walls felt as if they were wrapping around her and her back went ramrod straight. Her breaths became shallow and she tried to covertly wipe the sweat off of her free hand.

They made it to the parking structure and it was as if the heavens had parted. Jensen took a large breath and let it all out in a long sigh; thankful for the amount of space she suddenly had around her. As she got back on the bike she felt as if she might do a dance of some kind. She could see the sky, feel the breeze and was presently clinging to Jax's waist as if her life depended on it. They drove for about ten minutes to the fair grounds. A large plywood cutout of a clown made the sign and entrance gates for Funtown.

"I guess now's is a little late to tell you I hate clowns?" Jensen asked as she picked up Jax's hand.

"I thought you weren't afraid of anything?" Jax retorted.

"I'm not afraid of clowns, I just hate them. You can never really trust them." Jensen shrugged as they walked up to buy the tickets. As they walked away from the ticket counter Jensen could no longer repress the laughter she had been trying to swallow.

"Seriously? That's a lot of tickets. We probably have enough here to go on every ride twice." Jensen counted them all out. "You must think we are going to be there for a while."

"So I was thinking a rollercoaster." Jax smiled as he pulled her into his chest and nestled his head on her shoulder. "I want to hear you scream." He whispered with a smile.

"Well if nothing else can." Jensen let out a sigh as if she really believed for a moment that Jax couldn't make her scream.

"Trust me it won't be the last time tonight." Jax promised as they walked towards the rollercoaster.

They handed their tickets to a man with an elaborate beard and climbed into the cart. The ride was fast and short causing Jensen to squeal, as it made sharp turns and practically threw them into each other. Before she knew it the ride was over and they were letting themselves out and down a set of narrow metal stairs. Jax was the first off and lent her his hand for balance. As she made it down the stairs he pulled her into him, they were so close their noses touched.

"I'm going to kiss you now." He whispered.

"If you are going to throw yourself at me," she started but never got the chance to finish as Jax's lips pressed insistently to hers.

Just as they broke apart for air Jensen heard a, now familiar, cat call from only a small distance away. She looked over Jax's shoulder and smiled, Juice, Chibs, and a man Jensen hadn't met before walked up to them.

"Hi guys." She gave a small wave at both Juice and Chibs. "I don't think we have met before." Jensen's brow furrowed but she tried to remain as friendly as possible. "I'm Jensen,"

"Opie, Jax mentioned you a couple times." The man responded. He looked very serious. "You're the doctor."

"This is my best friend." Jax explained.

"It's nice to meet you. My brother is the doctor. I'm just the pretty face they use to sell what they provide. You know what they say, you get more friends with a carrot."

"And if they don't want to be friends?" Opie questioned, thought she could see the humour in his eyes.

"Well, I'm the carrot, but if you don't think we keep a stick around just in case, you are sadly mistaken." Jensen laughed.

"And what did you use on old Jacky-boy here?" Chibs laughed.

"Oh, that's all carrot." Jensen looked over at Jax and leaned into his shoulder a little.

"We will meet up with you guys later. I think I promised Jensen a churro." Jax smiled in a way that he was implying something other than a pastry.

The men laughed at Jensen's blush and walked off in a different direction but not before Opie leaned into Jax and whispered something in his ear Jensen could not hear. She pretended she didn't notice his small nod and agreement at something had to be done. They walked for a small amount longer before agreeing to go on another ride.

The pattern continued for several hours and the sun had gone down when Jensen suddenly stopped walking.

"Oh God I am such an idiot. I promised Leo I would get him something because he couldn't come to the carnival." Jensen exclaimed as she smacked her head lightly. "He's going to kill me if I don't bring him something."

"What about one of those?" Jax questioned as he pointed at large multi-coloured toys hanging on a rack, most of them had some sort of light up feature and looked perfectly suited to six-year-old boy fascinations.

"It's going to have to work. I don't know about you but I am thoroughly done with all things mechanic." Her eyebrows rose to make sure he had understood exactly what she was implying.

"Well by all means let's go." Jax smiled. "Would you like to come to my house for a drink?" he offered.

"I can think of a couple things I would like." Jensen smirked as she walked ahead of him to the parking lot.

They made their way back to Jax's house. He let her in and handed her a beer.

"So are you going to tell me a little bit about you?" He asked as they sat down on the beaten couch. "It seems everything I hear has been through someone else."

"What do you want to know?" Jensen asked as she took a swig of her beer.

"You and the IRA, how close is that connection?" Jax blurted.

"I'm not connected to the IRA. My grandfather was at one point, it's hard not to be if you're catholic and living in Belfast. Once he died, well, Irish accents were a lot less frequent in our house."

"What was his job?" Jax questioned, looking serious.

"I'm not sure, he never told me. He worked in a shipyard in Boston when he first got here, but moved to Ohio working in a factory making car parts. As far as I could tell they used his home as a way station." Jensen shrugged. "He told me once that they would need my help after he was gone but they never called and I never went looking. All that is left from the IRA are the ramblings of my father."

"What's your father's name?"

"Tiernan O'Halloran." Jensen put down her drink on the low coffee table and shifted towards Jax. "You know, Knucklebones, I didn't really want to come here for a drink." She stated as she looked at him tilting her had to the side slightly. "Or to talk about my daddy issues." She swung her leg over his lap and pushed herself up so that she straddled his waist. "I actually came here to do this." She placed a heated kiss on his lips before breaking off to gauge his reaction.

When she saw his small smile she continued on.

"And this." She trailed her kisses down his neck. "And this." She moved her hands from around his neck and down his chest before resting on his very upper thigh. She could feel him getting hard underneath her and let out a contented sigh. "I was also thinking about how I might best get you naked, but then I figured the best way to get what you want is to ask nicely." She smiled and kept her eyes wide and innocent as she looked at them. "Knucklebones, could you pretty please take your shirt off?" She maintained eye contact as she fiddled with the buttons on his collar.

"Yes." Came Jax's tight reply as if he were trying very hard to control himself.

"Good." Jensen whispered as she placed another searing kiss on his lips at the same time unbuttoning his shirt with deft fingers. She had already shrugged him out of his Kutte and pushed his shirt off his shoulders.

"What about this shirt?" She placed a kiss over his with t-shirt directly over his chest. "Can I please take this shirt off?"

Jax only nodded in response this time as Jensen moved to pull his shirt over his head. She let her fingertips explore his chest and abs before remembering she was still fully clothed.

"What about me?" her eyes stayed innocent. "Do you think I should take off my shirt?" She played with the hem slightly as she looked at him. She was incredibly aware of his hands running up and down her thighs only increasing her anticipation.

"I think if you don't take it off right now I am going to be very angry." Jax managed to almost growl out.

"And we wouldn't want the boss angry at us?" Jensen questioned as she stood up and pulled her shirt off revealing a sheer lacy purple bra. "Would we?" she repeated as she removed her own clothing and sunk to her knees in front of Jax. "What about your shoes? Surely you don't want these on in the house?" she smirked as she untied each of his shoes and placed them next to the couch. "The next thing to do is get rid of these pants, it looks like they might be uncomfortable. Can I please take them off?"

She didn't wait for his response as she began loosening the belt he had on. Slowly pulling his jeans off, smiling slightly as he lifted his hips to help her. Jensen placed small kisses down his chest and stomach as she toyed with the elastic edge of his boxers. She knew they would be the next thing to go but wanted to make him wait for it, this was just as much about her as if was about him.

Jensen stood up again before turning around and fiddling with the zipper on her boot. She was giving him just enough of a tease without giving everything away just yet. Once she was clear of her boots she straightened up and undid her jeans. She heard a hiss as he saw the sheer lace panties that matched the bra. She might not openly flaunt her curves like Cate, or use them as a tool like her sister did, but she did have enough to fill out the lingerie entirely. Her mother had once referred to Jensen's body as less of a model and more of a porn star, which at the time made a thirteen year old Jensen incredibly self conscious.

"I'm going to see you naked now." Jensen warned as she leaned over and pulled his boxers down, releasing his manhood and causing Jensen's eyes to go wide.

Large didn't quite cover what she was looking at right now. She jaw hadn't quite dropped but it was enough to make her actions still. Jax clearly saw this as an opportunity to turn the tables.

"You have me naked, what are you going to do with me now darlin'?" He asked clearly expecting to stump her.

Instead Jensen smiled and looked up at him.

"This." she responded and without thinking about it twice she placed her mouth around him. She looked up to see his expression go from shock to pleasure in a matter of seconds.

He let out a moan and threw his head back. His hands found themselves knotted into her hair as he pushed himself further into her mouth. Jensen could feel the warmth pool between her legs at the sound of his moans. Every time he thrust his hips she gained a little more satisfaction. She was making him loose control like this. Her body, her actions, her words, he made her feel sexy and desired and horny as hell. She suddenly halted her actions and pulled her mouth away smirking at the groan of disappointment he emanated.

"Don't worry I think you are going to like this next part." She giggled as she climbed on top of him again.

"I was enjoying what you were doing there, sweetheart." Jax growled as he placed several warm kisses on her mouth before moving up her jaw to capture her earlobe.

"I'm sure you were." Jensen let out a sigh as his tongue found her pulse point, causing her lust to spike through the roof. "So was I." She rubbed herself against him to emphasise the point.

She grabbed at one of his free hands and pulled it down to the apex between her thighs.

"Can't you feel how much I want you?" She let out a moan as Jax's fingers began circling her throbbing bundle of nerves. "Jax." She moaned as she threw her head back.

"Ask nicely." He chuckled.

"Please, please Jax, I need you." Jensen begged as her hips thrust into his hand in an attempt to gain more friction, groaning slightly when she found none.

"Wrap you legs around my waist." He commanded.

Jensen didn't need to be told twice. She eagerly wrapped herself around him as he stood up and moved down a hallway and kicked open a door before almost violently pushing her down on the bed.

"Jax! Please." She begged again.

This time he complied with her demands and replaced his fingers with his tongue as he pushed her panties down and slipped them off of her. Jensen's fingers wrapped themselves into his hair and her legs moved to his shoulders. A light sheen of sweat had developed over her entire body, she was so close to the edge and she was about to fall off. Her fingers tightened in Jax's hair urging him not to stop, groaning slightly as he worked his way back up her body. She felt his hands working behind her back to undo her bra, when it gave way she all but tore it from her chest. Jensen watched him dip his head and place an onslaught of kisses there, enjoying the slight prickle of his whiskers against her smooth skin.

His hands traced along her scars as he moved further up her body so that they were almost perfectly aligned. His mouth hovered over her lips; Jensen was trying to catch her breath and failing horribly. She wrapped her legs around his waist, pressing her heels into his lower back giving him a silent message to keep going.

"It's too late to stop now." She managed to whisper before lifting her head up to capture his lips with hers. "Please."

With that final beg for release something snapped in Jax, any trace of restraint he had tried to show vanished and something in his gaze changed. It was almost animalistic, the way he plunged into her causing her head to toss back at the sudden sensation of him. Her hips lifted to meet his, matching him thrust for thrust.

The sounds of their bodies meeting, the slap of skin on skin, filled the room mixed with the occasional moan from either of them. Jensen was on the precipice; all she needed was a little bit more, she could feel it working up inside her like a coil tightening with every thrust of his hips. She reached for one of his hands and guided him where she needed it most. He thumb danced figure eights around her clit as his hips continued to drive into her with a steady rhythm, causing her to be pushed off the precipice she was standing on.

Her inner muscles clenched like a vice around him as she let out a moan.

"Jax," she chanted his name like a mantra as she rode wave after wave of complete bliss.

She could feel him getting closer as his movements became more erratic. She felt him release inside her and the sensation, the knowledge that she had done that, that she had cause him the pleasure he was feeling now almost sent her flying off the cliff again. Hearing her name on his lips as he rested his forehead on hers plastered a smiled on her face. As he pulled out of her she almost cried at the loss, instead she contented to roll over onto her side and throw her leg across his waist. She placed light kisses along his collarbone.

"That wasn't half bad." She muttered in between kisses.

"For a first round it was almost halfway decent." He responded with a smirk. They could both hear the humour in their voices but neither was willing to admit just how good it was. "Are you going to tell me what that ink is?" Jax finally asked as his fingers traced the outline of her scars again, this time paying slightly more attention to their shape.

"No one told you?"

Jax shook his head.

"I can tell you if you really want to know but I'd need a commitment from you that this wasn't just a one night deal." Jensen raised an eyebrow partially in shock that Juice had actually kept his promise and not told anyone. "That you are going to call after I leave."

"Even if I didn't call I would see you at the shop." He smirked.

"Jax, I'm serious. I'm not looking for you to share your deepest darkest secrets with me, I'm just asking that we try this." Her looked became serious as she gestured between the two of them.

"Alright, let's give this a try." Jax finally smirked as he leaned over and placed a kiss on her lips before pulling away.

"Okay so I guess I have to tell you about my mother." Jensen sighed as she started explaining the complex relationship she had with Norma O'Halloran.


	9. Chapter 9

Jensen woke up earlier than she usually did on a Sunday. Her leg was swung over one end of the bed and a sheet was haphazardly spread across her lower half. She pushed herself up with one hand and rubbed the sleep off with the other. Jax was still asleep by her side and her eyes grew wide. This was real, they were going to try something, not that the something was defined but it was a start. She moved off the bed and wrapped herself in the large sheet that had covered her before. Her stomach made rumbling sounds to which she could only laugh at, after last night she was only surprised her stomach had waited this long to make it's protest known. Jensen padded down the hallway to a messy kitchen and started rummaging around in the refrigerator.

She pulled out things to make scrambled eggs before looking for a fork. As she opened one of the drawers she found a mound of dirty utensils, the bottom of the drawer was cocked at a funny angle causing her to take a double look. Jensen experimentally pressed on one of the corners sitting up at a funny angle and the whole bottom flipped up. Jensen took in a large breath. A gun was lying there along with several syringes and small bags of white powder. Her fingers traced the outline of the syringe closest to her.

It was as if that one syringe had brought her back to her childhood. She could see herself as a nine year old walking in on her grandfather with a belt looped around his upper arm, a needle protruding from a pronounced vein. She could hear herself scream as she tried to grab little Liam and pull him away from the brown substance resting in a spoon.

"Papa what are you doing? No, Liam don't touch that it's Papa's! Papa, Daddy's downstairs, Papa, I can't make him go, I just want him to go! He hurt me Papa, please!" Jensen lifted her hand to the back of her head; she could feel the lump on her head as if it were yesterday. It was as if the blood was really there. She felt something warm on her cheeks, as she pulled her hand away from wiping at it she expected to see the thick red of blood not tears. She hadn't cried in years, the last time she had allowed herself to cry she was nine, it was the very same day she had just remembered.

Jensen wanted to throw the offending materials away but couldn't bring herself to do it without confronting Jax; she had to know why he had them. It was as if she were moving underwater as she slowly pulled everything out of the drawer and placed it on the only clean surface of the counter. She wiped her eyes and took a large breath before trying to feel like herself again.

She heard a knock on the door. Without thinking about her state of undress she went to the door.

"Hey I know you! You're Best Friend Opie!" Jensen smiled as she moved aside to let him in and partially cover her body a little more. "Jax is still sleeping but I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you came in. You are Best Friend Opie after all." She chuckled at her own joke. Perhaps overcompensating for her earlier breakdown.

"You aren't wearing any clothes." He stated as he moved into the house, his eyes grazing her body.

"This is true. I find it difficult to do what we were doing with clothes on." She smirked. "Possible, but not as much fun." She fully got over her potential embarrassment as she started talking. "I'll go wake up Jax and get dressed." She swung the sheet over her body further so that it didn't drag on the floor. "No peeking!"

She closed the door to the bedroom behind her and dropped the sheet. She pretended she didn't notice Jax's open eyes as she grabbed for her underwear.

"Your best friend is here." She broke the silence. "He probably wants to talk to you about something important. And I have to make sure none of my bunch got arrested last night. My pants are in the living room." She muttered to herself as she looked under the bed for her clothing.

"You could stay and I could give you a ride back later." Jax offered as he pushed himself off the bed.

"Tempting as that sounds, I'm sure you have better things to do than give me rides places." Jensen leaned over and planted a kiss on his lips. "I can walk. Give me your phone." She demanded.

"Last night we said we were trying something, are you still thinking that's a good idea?" Jax ran his hand over his face and tossed his phone over to her.

"We are trying something, that doesn't mean I am going to hang all over you all the time, I've learned that's a quick way to lose interest. But you could come over tonight," she let her hands roam over his back as he sat up on the edge of the bed, her legs straddling his lap. "We could get to know each other a little better. I could send the kids out, I could cook for you." She lowered her voice to a whisper in his ear. "I could even cook for you naked."

"You make a tempting offer," Jax's hands formed around her hip.

"You are a pretty lucky man, usually men get one or the other not both. Go talk to your friend, I'll see you later tonight. Now, let me borrow one of your shirts so I can go out there and get my pants." She leaned over and picked up a black t-shirt. "What is it with this SAMCRO stuff?" Jensen asked as she read the writing on the shirt. "I mean Gemma told me it was an acronym for your club but I still can't figure it out."

"What did she tell you?"

"Just enough to ruin the expression eat crow, which I actually used with shocking frequency, but I suppose if I shout that at my thirteen year old sister now I'm sending a bad message. Which is kind of disappointing because she's wrong a lot." Jensen yammered as she moved away.

She walked down the hall, aware that Jax was only a few paces behind her.

"By the way I found that in your utensil drawer." She pointed at the drugs and pistol on the counter. "I'm not looking for an explanation yet, but I'm gonna need one if we plan on spending anymore time here."

"Look, guns are going to be everywhere with this life. Either you can handle that or not." He scratched the back of his neck as he looked over at Opie in the living room.

Jensen made a small noise as she moved around to grab her pants, ignoring Opie's gaze as she slipped them on under Jax's oversized shirt.

"You know the gun doesn't bother me." She kept her voice level, even managed a smile, despite the anger she was feeling, "Really, I don't need an explanation right now. I'm going to head out, you guys work out what ever it is that needs to be dealt with, and I will see you tonight." She placed a chaste kiss on his cheek. "Best Friend Opie, it was nice to see you again. Don't be a stranger and I promise next time to answer the door with clothes on. I'm just gonna keep this shirt, you can get it back tonight."

"Right." Opie finally confirmed with a questioning stare.

"Are you stealing from me?" Jax raised an eyebrow.

"I have to have some reason for you to come see me again. My number is in your phone, don't be afraid to use it." Jensen joked. She waived a final goodbye and walked out of the room, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

"That girl is like a walking, talking, tornado." She heard Opie remark. "I couldn't get a word in and she opens the door naked? Where did you find this one?" He asked as she closed the front door behind her.

Jensen pulled out her cell phone and saw a flashing light indicating that she had missed five calls last night all from Liam, one at midnight, another at a quarter past one, yet again at two, and then two in the following ten minutes. She pressed the redial button and held the phone against her ear.

"Jensen! Finally, I thought you would never answer I was about to send out a search party for you too." Liam exclaimed as he answered the phone.

"Me too? What are you talking about? What's wrong?" She demanded, an edge of panic creeping into her voice.

"It's nothing really, Cate was helping me earn some money last night. She got a ride with some bozo and they got home late but claim she's fine. Just between us I think something went down that she doesn't want to tell me about." Liam's voice became hushed.

"How were you earning money and why didn't you have Nate go with you?" Jensen asked sharply.

"Well, we went for a game of pool." Liam tried to explain before Jensen cut him off.

"You were using your little sister as bate? How dare you? I thought we put a stop to these games?" Jensen asked disgusted by her own brother's actions.

She knew for a fact that Liam wasn't playing pool. He had a knack for finding illegal street fights; the kind men get dragged away from in body bags. In the past Jensen and Liam would go as a pair, Jensen would get his opponent liquored up before they fight and Liam could knock him down with one or two well-aimed blows. It wasn't clean and it certainly wasn't honourable but it was an easy couple hundred bucks and it made the month feel a whole lot shorter.

"Jen, take a look at the vault! That's why I did it! You are making five hundred a week and we both know we spend more than half that on food in a week! We need the money, things got a little out of control last night but it won't happen again." Liam argued. "Maybe you could teach her a few tricks, she was three sheets at the one hour mark."

"Liam, if you do this again just ask me to go with you. I don't want Cate at those things she's too young. What if she hadn't gotten home last night? What if something really bad happened?"

"All the more reason for you to teach her what you know." Liam responded.

"Look I'm on my way home, we can talk about it there." Jensen huffed.

"Alright. So how was the date?" Liam changed the subject and she could hear the smirk in his tone. "I mean you're just headed home now so I assume it was at least decent. Do I need to go around making threats and smashing windows over your stolen virtue?"

"You do that and I might not have to worry about you getting into anymore fights." Jensen laughed.

"Oh yeah? And why is that?"

"Because you would be paralysed from the waist down for even thinking about touching this man's bike. I swear he loves that thing more than life itself!" She let out anther chuckle. "But yes the date was good, he does this thing with his tongue," She started to explain, knowing full well that Liam would end the conversation as soon as he heard that.

She heard a click before the dial tone. She shook her head slightly and continued walking towards her house. The people she passed looked at her with mixed expressions; some people would stare but refuse to make eye contact with her while others looked angry. Two young girls that looked about Cate's age, if Cate ever looked her age, were staring at her with a look Jensen could only place as jealousy. As she walked past the girls she saw one of them point at her shirt.

"Take a picture sweet cheeks! It'll last longer." She called over at them with an intimidating glare. "I'd give you the damn shirt if I thought it would make you stop staring at me!" She realised she was being a little harsh but having to do the walk of shame but her in a bad mood and before she could help herself the words were out of her mouth.

She stormed the rest of the way home trying to maintain her anger.

"Cate!" She called as she barrelled into the living room. "Cate, come out here!" She called again as she marched through the house.

"Right here sis." Came a soft voice that sounded riddled in sleep, causing Jensen to spin around.

"Ah shit." She managed to whisper before she moved closer to Cate and pushed her sisters hair out of her face, revealing a large bruise forming on her cheek. "What happened?" Jensen asked with all of the anger she was feeling totally evaporating as she took in Cate's dishevelled appearance.

"Nothing, it was nothing. I was helping Liam out with the fight and Tom was there, things got a little out of hand. Really I'm fine." Cate wrapped her arms around herself.

"Everyone has said that. Liam's exact words, things got a little out of hand. Cate, this looks like a lot more than things getting out of hand." Jensen dropped her hand from Cate's face. "Get dressed and ready to leave in ten minutes."

"Where are we going?" Cate called as Jensen turned to the room she was currently using to store her belongings.

"I'm going to teach you some things." Jensen muttered as she closed the door behind her.

The car ride was silent as Jensen drove for what felt like hours. Cate was making indistinguishable moaning noises and holding her head in her hands.

"I am never drinking again, I promise." Cate declared as she climbed out of the car, flinching at the sunlight.

"Don't make promises you can't keep." Jensen continued talking as she got out of the car and looked around. "You know I thought I would be mad at you; you directly disobeyed me and got yourself in a lot of trouble. But I'm not, I'm not mad at you. Liam, yes, I am furious at Liam and I wish he had never taken you anywhere close to the place he went. But he did and now we have to deal with that and I never want to see those marks on your face again." She gestured around her at the empty dirt lot she had taken Cate to.

"Are you going to show me how to kill people?" Cate managed a laugh as she plopped down on the dirt.

"Something like that, yeah." Jensen meant to smile but it came of more as a grimace.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I'm going to teach you how to use one of these," She pulled out her gun. "And as soon as your hangover rights itself I'm going to teach you how to drink at bars."

"Really, I get to use your gun? That is so cool. Thanks Jen!" Cate suddenly perked up.

"Yeah, I'm going to let you use my gun, now stand up and get over here." Jensen yelled, suddenly loosing her temper. "You see that tree?"

"It's more of a shrub really." Cate chuckled as she cupped her hand over her eyes.

"Look I'm not gonna try to teach you to be a sharp shooter but I want you to know what you are doing. So here's the gun. First thing you want to do is make sure it's loaded, slide back the rack, feet shoulder width apart, hold the gun with two hands, aim, and fire." Jensen demonstrated each move before turning the safety back on and handing the gun over to Cate. "Now you."

"Awesome!" Cate exclaimed as she grabbed for the gun. She moved away from Jensen slightly and turned the gun on its side, holding it with one hand.

"Who do you think you are?" Jensen yelled as she grabbed the gun before Cate could turn the safety off. "Some sort of gangster? You hold the gun like I showed you or you don't hold it at all! That is a really good way to shoot an eye out." Jensen lectured.

"Fine." Cate growled as Jensen handed the gun back to her. She took two pot shots at the tree and missed both times. Jensen smothered her snort and settled for smiling.

"Good. Now let's try to actually hit something. It helps if you take a little more time to aim before you fire." Jensen kept chuckling, ignoring Cate's grumbling.

They stayed out there for another three hours, going through most of the bullets Jensen had brought with her and Cate had even managed to hit what she was aiming for a few times.

"Alright it's time to go. You suck at this, but you are a damn sight nicer before." Jensen declared as she gave Cate a pat on the back.

"Where do you want to go next?" Cate positively beamed as if she hadn't just emptied the contents of her stomach three times.

"To market, to market, to buy a fat pig." Jensen looked over at the car as she heard Cate laugh at the expression. "No, seriously, I'm making pork chops tonight." Jensen started walking back to the car, laughing as she heard Cate running to keep pace with her.

"Really? We haven't had those in years! Liam always said they cost too much for all of us." Cate chatted as she finally caught up to her, only slightly breathless.

"He's right, they are too expensive for the whole family, especially now."

"What, what? Then why did you say you were making pork chops?" Cate's brow crumpled slightly.

"I can see why you would think I'm cooking for you." Jensen nodded. "See, I'm not. I made plans with Jax and it's kind of a two person dinner, clothing optional, you aren't invited."

"Gross." Cate grumbled as she climbed back into the car.

"I think that's the first time I have heard you say anything remotely close to your age. All thirteen year olds should think sex is gross, actually I would be okay with you thinking sex is gross until you are on the far side of eighteen." Jensen laughed mostly to herself.

"Sex isn't gross, you two 'playing house' is straight up perverted." Cate rolled her eyes and slouched on the window.

"And we get right back to acting like an adult. Don't you ever get tired of acting like that? I mean I get tired just watching you try so hard." Jensen snapped as she pulled into a parking space two blocks down from the market.

Cate didn't respond as she walked towards the store. Jensen pretended like she didn't notice the many people looking at her as she walked around the aisles with Cate and her purple-splotched face and Jensen's borrowed SAMCRO t-shirt.

"They are looking at us." Cate whispered as she leaned into Jensen. "Even the woman with ten bottles of wine in her cart is staring."

"Have you seen your face? It looks like you went one on one with a bus. You are going to have to tell me what happened with this Tom character. I thought I gave him pretty clear orders not to go near you." Jensen responded as she looked over the produce section. "Did he hit you?" She broke her attention from the apples to look at Cate.

"It wasn't like that, it was an accident. He's a good guy, I had had too much to drink and he was just trying to get his point across." Cate mumbled as she brushed her hair in front of the bruise with her hand.

"Was his point that you make a decent sized punching bag?" Jensen's forehead creased as she tried to cover her fury with concern.

"No, no it wasn't like that. I told you it was an accident." Cate blushed a colour Jensen had never seen on her before.

"Cate, what's wrong?" Jensen demanded becoming slightly panicky as she pulled her sister's hand away from her face.

"Nothing, it's nothing." Cate pushed Jensen away and grabbed for the cart. "What the fuck, are you doing?" She almost screamed as Jensen started pulling at the long sleeves of Cate's shirt.

"Looking for tracks! It's ninety degrees outside and you are in the most clothing I have seen on you since you got here!"

"Jensen stop! People are staring!" Cate complained as her sister kept trying to push up Cate's sleeve. "Jensen, I swear nothing happened. Please, stop." Jensen saw Cate's wince as she pressed down on her forearm.

"What happened?" Jensen repeated.

"I can handle it! It was an accident! Stop it!" Cate yelled as she ripped her arm away.

"Can you handle it or was it an accident?" Jensen argued, trying to take back her sister's arm.

"Both. You should be used to handling accidents, isn't that what you did for us? Aren't we your little troop of accidents?"

"Yeah you are, the key word there is mine! You are my kids, and no one lays a finger on you if you don't want them to." Jensen finally managed to nudge one of Cate's sleeves up to her elbow. "Fuck, this was not an accident. He really did use you as a punching bag. I'm going to kill him." Jensen declared as she grabbed the cart again and continued shopping.

"Don't over react. It was an accident, I'm handling it." Cate tried to reason with Jensen as she walked down the row of freezers.

"I am going to kill him with a smile on my face and a song in my heart for what he did to you. This Tom guy is bad news and if he did this once he will do it again." Jensen insisted as she shook Cate's wrist in her face.

"What about your Jax? You think he's never done anything slightly wrong? He'll do that again too." Cate grabbed at Jensen's arm trying to make her turn around again.

"I'm sure he has, and I am sure he will, the difference is that my guy isn't some wolf in sheep's clothing. Do not try to compare our situations, I don't have bruises up and down my arms and I'm a full-fledged adult. When are you going to learn that all men are wolves? The only ones you can trust are the ones that don't try and hide it!"

"So what? You want me to fall in with one of them?" Cate almost screamed, pointing at her shirt. "They think of each other as brothers, you know that? Sisters fucking brothers, it's almost poetic."

"No, I would rather you date someone your own age and not fuck anybody. Is that really too much to ask for?" She turned onto a new aisle and stopped dead in her tracks. Gemma was standing there with a cart of her own and a smirk on her face as if she had heard their entire conversation. "Fuck." She muttered before walking forward. "Gemma, Hi." Jensen tried her hand at friendliness.

"Hi, hun." Gemma's words seemed friendly enough but her words as always seemed guarded. "Is everything okay?"

"Of course, I'm just trying to teach my little sister some life lessons." She ignored that only two seconds ago she had declared that she was going to kill a man, silently admonishing herself for talking about it at all in public.

"Well, I am making a bit of a family dinner tonight and I think you should come, your whole family is invited." Gemma almost smiled.

"Are you sure? I mean, I know Liam and Russell have decent manners but Leo is going through this stage where he thinks green beans look like alien turds. We are trying to kill that habit before we re-introduce him to the general public."

"This isn't public, this is family. Of course they are all invited."

"Okay, and you know we aren't actually family." Jensen frowned.

"That shirt you are wearing is like a brand. You wear that and it says family." Gemma walked closer. "How's your Jax?"

Jensen took in an audible gulp.

"I think he's fine, at least he was when I left him. So we will see you there tonight? At about seven?"

"Will you have a smile on your face and a song in your heart?" This time Gemma really did smile.

Jensen felt her stomach drop and her eyes grow wide. Gemma had heard.

"Sure, if that's what you need. Anything we can bring?" Jensen forced a smile on her face and tried to ignore the sweat that had formed in the creases of her hand.

"No, just yourselves." Gemma turned back to her cart and smiled as she walked away.

"Come on." Jensen had to almost tug Cate out of the position she was stuck in. "Come on,"

"She knows." Cate whispered as they walked away.

"I could tell, but we haven't done anything wrong so don't act like we did." Jensen grabbed Cate by the elbow and dragged her to the check out line, ignoring her complaints. "Here, go put this back." Jensen handed Cate the things she was going to make for Jax that night.

"But that's all the fresh stuff."

"We have plenty, don't worry. Go and meet me back in the car." Jensen ran a hand through her hair as she picked up her phone.

She searched for the number she knew belonged to Jax as she waited, biting her nails as a nervous habit she thought she had ditched along with puberty. There was no response on the first ring and her panic level shot through the roof. She dialled again and this time he picked.

"Jensen, I'm in the middle of something right now." He sounded angry.

"Okay, I'll keep it brief. We can't have dinner at my place because Gemma just invited me over for a family dinner. Why didn't you tell me you were breaking plans with your family this morning?"

"I guess I forgot. So you aren't cooking for me naked?" He asked after a moment, the anger ebbing from his voice.

"I don't think my brothers would appreciate that." Jensen rolled her eyes and flushed a light shade of pink as she handed the teenage boy standing behind the cash register a couple twenties.

The boy fumbled for the right amount of change and Jensen let out an annoyed huff.

"I'm not getting any younger here!" She snapped her fingers indignantly, with the phone tucked in between her shoulder and ear.

"Yes ma'am." He almost trembled as he handed over the change.

"Do I look like your fucking mother?" She asked with a scowl as she toted the bagged groceries out of the car.

"I wish." She saw the boy roll his eyes before looking down at the pile of groceries in front of him.

"Just a little fair warning," Jensen started talking into the phone again. "Your mother may be under the impression that I am going to kill someone. There is a perfectly good reason behind it, I just need to know if there is a Tom on your list."

"My list?" Jax questioned.

"Yeah, the list of people you would rather not see me kill in some vicious, bloody, attack. Come on, Tom, works part time at that hardware store, on Sundays he's some crack-pot man of God." Jensen described as she climbed back in the car.

"He's not on my list. Do you need help with this?" His voice became hushed, concern leeching through, and she could hear the others yelling at him in the background.

Jensen held up a hand to Cate as she started to get back in the car, shaking her head slightly.

"If someone is willing to help I would be glad to have a lookout but I need to do this." In reality Jensen really needed Cate to do it but knew she never would. "This guy hurt my family he's not getting off with a warning." Jensen shook her head, ignoring Cate's complaints about the heat.

"I can have Happy meet you where ever you want to do it." Came Jax's response after a moment.

"One hour outside of First Baptist. The pervert's a preacher." Jensen let out a disgusted snort. "I need this taken care of." She let the stress seep into her voice and tried to make herself believe it didn't make her seem pathetic and desperate.

"We'll deal with it." Jax's response was brisk but it was all she needed.

"Thanks." Jensen ended the conversation mostly because of her lack of anything else to say. She was fuelled entirely by anger and instinctual protection. Cate was in trouble even if she was the last person to see it. "Get in." Jensen finally acknowledged her sisters complaints. "We need to get home."

They drove home in silence. Cate fussed with her sleeves, making sure they completely covered the bruises. Jensen parked the car in the driveway but sat there for a moment.

"You can't show Liam. I'm going to take care of this situation in a way that won't come back to bite us in the ass, but if Liam sees this he will do something really dumb and probably end up behind bars." Jensen lectured as she pointed down at Cate's arms. "Are there more?"

"How are you going to handle it?" Cate asked, looking worried.

"Don't worry about it, but I promise he won't lay a finger on you ever again." Jensen pulled a strand of hair out of Cate's face and tucked it behind her ear. "Family first, right?" She smiled.

"Yeah, always. Jensen, there are more." Cate stated and held up her shirt revealing heavy bruises on her chest, down her torso, and two clear handprints on her hips. "He gave me a ride home"

"What?"

"After he," she pointed at the bruises. "He drove me home."

"I promise you he is never going to be able to do this again, he will never so much as look at you again. Now go get the groceries and put them in the house. I have to head out for a few hours." Jensen turned back to the wheel and looked out, trying to gather her determination.

Once all of the bags were cleared from the backseat Jensen sped off towards the church. The entire way she played out how this meeting could go in her head while she blasted music on the radio, trying to cover her anxiety. How would she act when she first saw him? She knew enough that she couldn't kill him at the church. Jensen pulled up to the church and closed her eyes for a moment, trying to see exactly what would happen when she walked in there and put a gun in his mouth.

Poorly, that was the only way she could see a 'guns-blazing' approach working for her, very, very, poorly. She was jerked out of her daydream by a sharp tapping on the window. Jensen shot up and her eyes went wide, only relaxing when she saw that it was a semi-familiar face.

"Jesus, Happy, are you trying to give me a heart attack?" Jensen scolded as she rolled down the window.

"You ready?" he responded gruffly.

'Yeah sure, give me a minute." She started looking through her bag for her gun and pocketknife. Without a word she got out of the car and popped the trunk looking for the lug wrench she kept there. She weighed it in her hand before tossing it to the other. "I'm going to bust my stitches open." She stated without emotion.

She closed the trunk and pushed the wrench into her purse. She took a large breath in and exhaled with a smile on her face. Jensen practically bounced into the church just as everyone was leaving. She ignored the looks she was getting from the women dressed in their Sunday best, she pretended she couldn't see the scowls most people were giving Happy.

"Excuse me, ma'am." Jensen stopped some old woman in an oversize fuchsia hat to ask for directions. "I'm looking for a Junior Pastor, his name is Tom, and I was hoping you could tell me where I might find him."

"Sure dear, what ever is the matter?" The old woman looked over at an incredibly uncomfortable Happy.

"Oh, nothing, nothing. My fiancé and I were just looking at wedding venues and, well, this is just such a beautiful church." Jensen gushed as flaunted her granddad's ring at the woman with a giggle. "Isn't it wonderful, Sweetheart?" Jensen looked over at Happy expectantly.

"Great." He raised his eyebrows slightly but went along with her story.

"He's not a man of many words but he's a softy under all that leather." Jensen giggled again and was really starting to feel like an airhead.

"Don't worry dear, all the best ones are." The woman patted Jensen's hand reassuringly. "Well the man you are looking for should be in his office. Down the hall there, it's the third door on the left. He's a good man, but he has never bonded with the community. He always keeps to himself." The woman continued walking out of the church.

"Thanks." Jensen almost ran towards the hall the woman had pointed out.

"I thought it was Jax you had a thing for? Now we are engaged and I bought you a ring?" He grabbed for Jensen's hand. "I don't understand, what's so special about you?" Happy asked as he almost pushed her into the closest wall. "Just another crow eater if you ask me." He smirked as his eyes roamed up and down her body.

"Then it's a good thing no one asked you." Jensen bit out; knowing that being called crow eater was tantamount to being called a slut. "Always go in with a plan. Plans keep people alive, keep people out of jail, and keep questions from being asked. I made a plan that protected both of us, if you don't want to go along with it fine, I can assure you the cops will look at you first and probably last." She pushed him away hard enough to send a message without causing any damage.

"Fine." He grumbled as they continued walking down the hall.

"Thank you Jensen, for thinking of saving my ass while dealing with a pervert that beat up and raped your sister. I can see now that you aren't just chasing some tail." Jensen rolled her eyes as she said the words. "What did I over sell it on the pervert part?" She asked in response to Happy's horrified look.

Without waiting for a response she knocked on the door to the office the woman had described. She heard a faint response and pushed the door open.

"Wait out here and knock on the door once the church is empty." Jensen requested quietly as she walked into the office.

Happy nodded.

"Hi, Tom." Jensen smiled though her eyes pointed daggers at the man sitting behind the desk. "It's rude, you know, not to offer your guest a seat." She continued talking as she saw the man's eyes go wide and she took a seat in the leather chair opposite him. "I've seen that look on you before." She tilted her head slightly. "When I told you Cate was thirteen and you had to stay away from her. It's a pity you didn't listen to me."

"Look ma'am I'm not sure what you are talking about. I haven't seen Cate since you told me to leave." His eyes darted around the room. "Hand to God, I meant only to spread the word of God's love."

"Yeah? Is that what you call the thing between your legs?" Jensen snorted. "Save it, my sister is covered head to toe in bruises and there is only one name coming out of her mouth. Yours. Do you like beating up on little girls? Does it make you feel like a macho man? Is that the only way you can get it up?" Jensen barked. "You pathetic piece of crap. When I'm done with you, you are going to wish you were dead. I might even let you pull the trigger, remember suicide is a sin."

"Get out of my office or I will call the cops." Tom tried to argue a fire burning in his eyes that would have scared Jensen if she weren't sure she had the same fire glowing in her own eyes.

"Yeah? And tell them what, that you have a girl in your office accusing you of rape? Please call them; I would love to tell my story to several police officers. I wonder whose side they would take, from what I hear you haven't gone out of your way to make friends here."

"I didn't rape anyone. Your whore of a sister was asking for whatever she got." Tom spat. "She's nothing more than trash raised by trash." He had just finished speaking when Jensen heard a harsh rapping on the door just before Happy slipped in.

"You are going to seriously regret saying that. The thing about me is that I don't really care if you think I'm trash, I don't even care if you call me trash. But I'm not a whore and my thirteen-year-old sister certainly isn't a whore and she certainly didn't ask to be beaten and raped." Jensen lectured as she walked around his desk, smirking as he instinctually backed away from her.

She aimed her fist at his jaw.

"Stand up." She demanded. "Now."

He complied slowly raising his hands up to his head. Jensen aimed another blow to his cheek.

"You thought no one would notice?" Jensen yelled as she punched him again and again and again without waiting for his response. She saw blood trickle down his face from his nose and couldn't be bothered to care. "Didn't your mother ever teach you it was rude to hit a girl?" Jensen finally backed away from the bruised man and let him try to defend himself while she went back to her purse. "Sit back down. You look like the idiot you are with your hands raised like that and it sure as hell isn't going to stop me."

Jensen saw his eyes dart to the door but knew that Happy was guarding it. As vile as Tom was, he wasn't stupid he knew Happy wouldn't let anyone past the door.

"Have your little guard dog for protection?" He spat out a glob of blood and saliva. "Just in case I do the same thing to you as I did to your bitch sister?" He continued to act tough even as his body betrayed him. His arms were shaking as he sat back down, his eyes showed complete fear.

Jensen couldn't be bothered to listen to it. She pulled out the lug wrench she had brought.

"The mistake you are making is that you think I have never done this before. No, I have dealt with the scum of the earth and I sleep like a baby at night." She slammed the wrench down on his hand that was gripping the armrest.

Tom let out a howl and his hand shot up to his chest, away from Jensen.

"It's broken." She looked manic as she said it, she could feel the high from sheer adrenaline. "Do you want me to break the other?" Jensen asked slowly as she walked to the other side. She saw Tom shake his head. "Say you're sorry."

"I'm sorry." He muttered.

"Not good enough!" She spat and swung the wrench down on his other hand. "Just what are you sorry for?" She walked back to her bag and pulled out her pocketknife before perching on the desk next to Tom, tears were running down his face and Jensen couldn't help but smile. "Do you think my sister looked like you do now? Did she beg like you are going to? Is that what made you do it? Did you want to hear her beg?" She asked as she opened the knife without expecting a response.

"You know I was dating this guy a while back, big mistake he was way too smart for my taste, went to university and all that, anyways he was always talking medieval torture techniques. I tuned him out for the most part, thought it was just some fetish, but there was one, death by a thousand cuts. That one piqued my interest, now the basic principal is that I slice you up from eyeball to asshole and eventually you die. I've been told it's similar to being raped with a metal pipe; personally, I don't think there is a sensation on earth that I could give you at would be the same as being raped. But you can bet your ass I'm gonna try."

It took over three hours for Jensen to finally feel satisfied with her work.

"If he's not dead yet he will be soon. Let's take him out the back way and bury him in a deep grave. Not even the dogs will be able to find him." Happy finally broke in halting her hand from landing another slice on the man's barely recognisable face.

"Did you hear what he did to my family?" Jensen demanded. "To my baby sister? She didn't ask for it. I know she didn't. You should see the marks that bastard left. Up and down her arms across her stomach, everywhere."

"And he's gonna die, his body will never see the church cemetery, he's going to get everything he deserves." Happy tilted his head and his eyes went wide. "We need to get going."

"Fine." Jensen spit over Tom's unconscious form. "You awful, awful, rat of a man, I hope you rot in hell for the rest of eternity."

"You are going to have to drive him."

"It, this man gave up his human status the minute he laid a finger on my baby." Jensen growled.

"Fine, you are going to have to drive it. Just follow me and I'll find a place for it"

"I have a rag in the car, clean up some of this blood, make it look a little less like a crime scene. And, Happy, I have to burry it."

"You will be late for dinner." He warned.

"Liam will cover for me. I have to do this."

"Why doesn't Cate do it?"

Jensen opened her mouth and closed it again, at a complete loss for words.

"Because Cate had a really rough night and she likes to act tough but she's never done anything like this and I'm the oldest, it's my job." Jensen listed off a few of the reasons Cate would never know what she was doing to Tom.

"Make your calls in the car we need to leave." Happy wrapped one of Toms limp arms around his shoulder and nodded his head waiting for Jensen to take the other side.

"What's the rush?"

"Evening church, the place will be packed." He rolled his eyes.

"Okay." Jensen nodded as she grabbed Tom's other side. They worked silently and mostly efficiently as they wiped the blood off of the leather seat and hardwood floors. Tom was stuffed in the locked trunk and Jensen could already feel lighter.

Jensen climbed in the car and closed her eyes, blindly grabbing her phone and dialling her brother's number.

"Hello?"

"Russell? What are you doing answering Liam's phone?" Jensen asked. "No, I don't really care. I was just calling to tell all of you to be ready to leave at 6:30, Jax is going to stop by and lead you to Gemma's. I need you to explain that I am running late and that I'm sorry. I picked up a couple bottles of wine at the market, bring those."

"Why?"

"Because I read in a magazine once that it's rude to show up to someone's house without a gift." Jensen snorted. "It's like, a little bit better than two-buck chuck so don't go bragging about anything."

"No, why are you going to be late?" Russell clarified.

"I just am, I'll tell you about it when I get home." She tried to dodge the question.

"You aren't getting out of it."

"I know, I'm just going to tell you about it when I get home." Jensen assured. "We'll have a family meeting. Cash and stories to go around, it'll be something."

"Okay, I'll let them know."

"Thanks kiddo, and next time don't answer Liam's phone. You know he would flip a lid if he caught you." Jensen warned.

"Whatever." She could hear the eye roll in his voice before the click of the line being disconnected.

Jensen followed Happy as he led the way out of town. She looked over at the clock in the dashboard it flashed 5:08. It took them slightly under two and a half hours to dig the hole for Tom, Jensen refused help as she dragged a now completely dead Tom from her trunk to the hole. She was covered with dirt and blood as she climbed back in the car. She twisted into the back and grabbed a clean shirt from the packed suitcase she always kept, in case she had to leave in a hurry.

Jensen drove to the address Liam had texted her. She parked the car a few blocks a way from the flock of motorcycles and pulled off the stained black shirt she had taken from Jax. She closed her eyes for a moment and rested her head on the headrest. This had been the longest day she could remember and it wasn't over yet. She heard a sharp tapping and jerked up covering her chest with the shirt and looking out the window. Tig was standing there with a grin on his face.

"Don't you have something better to do than lurk?" Jensen snapped as she pulled the shirt over her head.

"Gemma saw you pull up and wanted to know why you were sitting out here while your brother told us about alien turds." He chuckled.

"Please tell me it was Leo." Jensen recovered from her shock slowly.

"Yeah." Tig confirmed as he cocked his head trying to get a better view as Jensen shimmied out of her stained pants.

"Really?" She asked as she stepped out of the car and buttoned up her pants. "You don't have anything better to do?"

"We waited for you to eat." He shrugged.

"Wait a minute, Leo is talking about alien turds without eating green beans? We need to work on that." Jensen started walking to the house. "You coming to get that diner you wanted? I'm here now."

Tig walked ahead of her and opened the door. Jensen walked in and smiled as Leo ran up to her.

"Hey buddy, I heard you were talking about the green beans again."

"Little aliens." He nodded. "You are wearing different clothes."

"You know I spilt Kool-Aid all over that other shirt." She nodded. "Come on introduce me to everyone."

Leo tugged her around to all of the fifteen or so people in the house, occasionally forgetting a name or mispronouncing a nickname. At last he brought her up to Jax and Gemma.

"You know I actually already know these guys." Jensen smiled as Liam introduced Jax first as Jackson. "Hi." She waved at Gemma before leaning up to place a kiss on Jax's cheek. "You are going to have to wait on that shirt I borrowed. Things got a little messy today."

"Did it all go okay?"

"Yeah, Charming's First Baptist is short a pastor but I'm good." Jax raised an eyebrow. "Really, I'm better than good. Gemma, thanks so much for inviting my family to your home. It is really very beautiful." She laid it on thick in an attempt to get on her good side.

"Of course. It's nice to have some little ones around again."

"Well if it's one thing the O'Halloran's are good at it's keeping plenty of little ones in stock." Jensen smiled only partly joking.

"If you want to come help me in the kitchen, I could use an extra set of hands." Gemma offered.

"Sure, I'd love to help."


	10. Chapter 10

The dinner proved to be a lot less stressful than Jensen had imagined it. Everyone seemed relaxed, even Clay seemed to mildly tolerate her family. It helped that she had consumed nearly an entire bottle of wine as she sat next to Jax.

"Jensen, tell them all the languages you speak." Liam hollered from down the table. "He won't believe me." Liam pointed at an old man hooked up to oxygen; Jensen thought she remembered his name was Piney. "Says there is no way one person can know that many languages."

Jensen wiped at her face with her napkin and smiled.

"I speak nine languages, ten if you count Gaelic, which most people don't because no one speaks it. It's part of how I got all the random jobs on the road. It's a gift. Don't worry most people don't believe I can do it either."

"How did it get you a job?"

"Are you kidding? Once you start speaking someone's native language they start thinking of you as family. They are more willing to do what you ask." Jensen laughed.

"Prove it!" Tig called from opposite Russell.

"And just how do you suggest I do that? Do you speak another language? I could be telling you to kiss a monkey's ass, and you wouldn't know it, or I could be making up sounds and you still wouldn't know it." Just for the hell of it she decided to throw out a couple languages. Insults in five different languages went flying across the table aimed mostly at Tig.

"So what did you say?" Tig was still grinning. Clearly he hadn't picked up on her tone.

"Nothing good brotha'." Chibs shook his head. "You don't have to understand wha' she said to understand that."

"I suggested you have had an inappropriate relationship with your mother, more than once." Jensen stated unblinkingly. "In five different languages." She smiled as she looked down at her now empty plate. "Goodness, Gemma, that really was an excellent dinner."

"Jen, we gotta get Leo home." Liam interrupted. "He's passed out on the couch." He jerked his finger back into the living room.

"All right, load him into my car. Cate can dive."

"Why can't I drive?" Russell asked looking indignant.

"January 20th 2012." Jensen rattled off the date without pausing. "I get a call that you have been in an accident and I think your dead. So no, you don't have my approval to drive, Cate does. Did you get some beds for us today?" Her questioning turned to Liam again; he was over at the couch trying to pick Leo up without waking him.

"Yeah, Leo got a race car bed." Liam grunted as he heaved Leo over his shoulder.

"Vroom, vroom, motherfucker." Jensen giggled and turned her head to rest on Jax's shoulder. "Did you hear that? I have a bed." She stage whispered to him as her foot dragged up his leg. "What do you say we go try it out?" This time her whisper was slightly better and only half of the table heard her.

Because of the amount of alcohol she had imbued Jensen found she really didn't care that Jax's mother was in hearing range.

"No, we have a family meeting." Liam called as he made his way back through the kitchen from the car. "Cash and stories to go around, right?" That was exactly what she had promised Russell and they caused her to scowl.

"The oldest is supposed to call those meetings, it's the rules." She huffed as she stood up and gathered several plates that had been tossed in the centre of the table.

"You make up the rules! Did someone leave you like a manifesto or something?" Liam rolled his eyes. "Are you coming? Or are you getting a ride from someone else." He looked pointedly at Jax.

"You guys go. I'll see you back at the house, I'm gonna help with these dishes." She beckoned him closer. "Drive safe okay?" She planted a quick kiss on his cheek. "And really don't let Russell drive."

He nodded and gave her hand a small, encouraging pat before walking out with a few goodbyes and thanks.

"Don't worry about those, hun, I'll get them in the morning." Gemma waved off Jensen's work.

"Are you sure?" She asked, stumbling slightly as she tried to walk around her own chair. "I don't mind." Jensen's words followed her as she walked into the kitchen but she stopped there. "Crap, maybe I do mind." She muttered as she looked around.

Jensen had grown so used to living alone that she had forgotten what a mess could be created when feeding large amounts of people. Dishes stacked up in the sink, pots and pans lay with food in them on the stove.

"I told you it was fine. I'll clean up in the morning." Gemma rounded the corner as Jensen placed her stack of dishes on the island.

"Nonsense. I said I would help and I'm going to." Jensen started rolling up her sleeves. "Besides, it will give me a chance to get back in the swing of things with my family."

"Are you glad they are back?" Gemma asked as she picked up a cloth to start drying the items Jensen placed in front of her.

"Of course I am. I missed them a lot."

"But?"

"It's just that, I'm too young to be a mom. I'm too young to be a mother to teenagers. I love Cate and I would do anything to protect her, but I don't know what I'm doing here. I never had to deal with the same issues with Liam. Russell likes to keep his head down most of the time, but Cate." She paused not knowing how to describe her sister. "I'm just trying to do everything in my power to make sure she, and everyone else, makes it to heaven even if that means condemning myself to hell."

"You're a believer then?" Gemma's tone told Jensen that Gemma was not in fact a believer.

"I don't believe there's a God out there that minds if I curse or have premarital sex, but yeah I think there is a God that judges good and evil and I know for a fact that there isn't a God that would judge my actions as good." Jensen declared after a moment. "Especially after my actions today."

"What did you do?"

"Do you really want to know?" Jensen looked over, trying to gauge if Gemma really wanted to make herself an accomplice to her murder.

"I can take it." Gemma stopped drying and placed her hand on her hip looking expectant.

"My brother took Cate to some seedy bar and she got a ride home with a man that beat and raped her. I found him and tortured him and that killed him. She's thirteen and I know what's going through her head right now and I have to be strong for her."

"But he's dead now?"

"Deader than a doornail." Jensen assured her. "It's not the first time I had to do something like that and I am certain it won't be the last, but I hate that I had to do it for her." She looked at the now empty sink and started bringing pans over.

"All the more reason to enjoy the life you have." Gemma shrugged.

"Oh I do," Jensen smirked as she thought about Jax. "It's just days like today, I remember I haven't been to church in a while." She finished the last pan and smiled as the work was done. "I'll see you tomorrow." She walked back into the dining room and wrapped her arms around a still seated Jax. "Care to take a girl home?" She whispered in his ear.

"What about your family meeting?" He turned slightly to get a better view of her.

"Well that I don't think I can get you in. Strict rule, O'Halloran's only. But I bet I could keep you in my room and then when I was done I can have my wicked way with you." She smiled at her own joke.

"In that case, let's go." He rose from his chair while draining his beer. "Alright fella's, I gotta get a move on my services are needed." Jensen rolled her eyes at the other's laughter but grabbed for Jax's hand and led him out the door with a few smiles.

"Wait a second." Gemma called from the kitchen. She walked forward and, rather awkwardly, embraced Jensen for a second. She pulled away and Jensen had to hide the confusion she was sure was etched all over her face. Her calm façade was completely destroyed when Gemma leaned in and placed a kiss on her cheek, similar to how she had with Liam. "Thanks for coming." She smiled before moving over to give Jax a kiss goodbye.

They walked out of the house a moment later. Jensen still had a look of confusion plastered on her face.

"I like your family, they seem to be on the same wavelength as mine, but that was really strange." Jensen shook her head slowly.

"She's accepting you. That's a fair bit better than she could have done." Jax laughed as he led her to his bike.

"Do all mothers do that?"

"Does yours?"

"My mother has certainly kissed my boyfriends before but never on the cheek and the only acceptance she was making was the one into her bedroom." Jensen slung her leg over the bike and shimmied a little, trying to get comfortable. "Take me home." She whispered with a lopsided grin as she thought about her previous rides on Jax's bike.

As they pulled up to her house she could hear an argument going on in full swing. Jensen walked into the living room and could feel Jax right behind her. Before she could comprehend what was happening she felt a strong weight barrel into her side and knock her to her feet. Jensen looked around and saw Liam hop up as if nothing had happened. She grabbed for Jax's hand as he helped pull her up.

"Alright that's enough!" Jensen bellowed. "Everyone to their corners! NOW!" Her tone made it clear she wasn't to be fooled with. Russell and Cate were on one side while Liam, sporting a fresh bruise was on the other. "Now someone tell me what the fuck happened here!" She demanded her gaze flitting from Cate to Russell and finally to Liam.

"That money is half mine! I earned it." Cate yelled, as her scowl remained focused on Liam.

"You didn't earn anything! You drank too much and left with some stranger twice your age." Liam bit back. "Your lucky I don't kick you out! And you," his gaze turned to Russell. "How dare you hit me?"

Jensen stomped her foot as she moved in between them. She wanted to throw a punch at Liam for saying those things after what Cate had been through but had to remind herself that he didn't know, that he would hopefully never need to know.

"I have heard enough of this." Her voice became calmer but her eyes still commanded everyone's attention. "Cate, the money's not half yours. You botched the job, and I don't want to hear about this earning crap. I used to do what you did last night, and I did it without ruining the whole thing, but I never kept all the earnings. They go in the vault and we divide them evenly. Russell, if you ever lay a finger on any member of this family again I will break your hand. Understood?" She saw Russell nod reluctantly. "Liam, we do not talk about kicking family out." She walked towards him slowly. "This is family! This is blood!" Without thinking she raised her hand and backhanded him. "You turn your back on family and you are as good as dead. This isn't some rec club! You don't get to choose whose a member! I have never been more disgusted with all of you."

Jensen walked over to the closet she had seen her brothers put the lock box and fumbled with the key on her key ring. Once she opened the box she it's contents and spilled it onto the table before adding the cash from her first week and the remainder of her savings.

"Does anyone else have anything to add? Cough it up now." She waited as Liam added a thick envelope of cash to the pile. She threw a pointed look at Cate who placed a small stack of twenties on the table. "Russell?" Jensen cocked an eyebrow.

"Nothing this week." He shrugged before turning out his pockets.

Jensen nodded as she sat down and started counting. She set aside the money they would need to pay the bills this month and divided the rest up into four groups.

"Alright I need plans for the week." She demanded as she watched her family sit down at the table with her.

"What about him?" Liam nodded over at Jax.

"Jax, we are potentially going to talk about illegal ways to earn money. If the cops catch wind of anything we will know whom to blame. Would you like to stay in the room?" Jensen asked as sweetly as she could muster.

Jax looked to think about it for a minute before nodding his head and sitting down in the seat closest to her.

"Sure." He leaned back and looked around appraisingly.

"Fine. I'm going to head out to Oakland tomorrow and try to make some connections. I'm going to need the car. I'm also going to need you on call for translations." He massaged the bruise as he spoke.

"You got it." Jensen handed him a portion of the cash she had laid out for him. "That should be enough for food and gas for the week. You don't want to be walking around with too much cash." Liam nodded as he counted the money. Jensen's gaze turned to Cate.

"I'm planning another ATM deal." Russell cut in before Jensen could demand Cate to stay home. "Just the usual and that way I can be close if Liam gets a call." He shrugged.

No one was entirely sure how Liam's ATM deals worked but he came home with well over the max limit for a few days. Jensen nodded slowly. Usually it would take about two days before police would start to notice, longer if it was a bigger city, and he would have to lay low for a few weeks before starting up again.

"Just remember to keep your head down. It's risky." She warned as she handed him some cash.

"Less risky than your job." Liam rolled his eyes.

"Excuse me? What is that supposed to mean?" She snapped. "I am gainfully employed and it's the only thing making us seem remotely less criminal."

"It means that you start running around with America's Most Wanted over there and suddenly the cops are on us like molasses on toast." He gestured wildly at Jax.

"Hey, if you've got a problem with my love life just say so!"

"If you think I give a flying fuck who you've decide to shack up with, then you really don't know me. All I'm asking is that you keep a low profile." Liam threw his hands by his side as if that were nothing.

"I'm sorry, you would like me to step into the closet?" Jensen laughed as a way to cover just how offended she really was.

"Yeah and take your biker boy toy with you." Liam spat.

"That's enough! I get that you are mad at me for leaving. I know I can't make up for the years I missed. But if you are going to keep questioning my authority you won't be invited to the family meetings. I left you in charge because I thought you could handle it! I thought you were more mature than this!"

"I was sixteen years old! I did the best I could, this is the result of my leadership." He jabbed his finger down on the table as he stood up. "You have been gone for four years! What gives you the right to come back and suddenly call all the shots?"

"Th-the right?" Jensen's brow furrowed but she remained seated. "This is my family, I raised you. I went without so that you could get what you need. You! This family is the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I think about before I go to bed. I do things for this family that I can't stand to say out loud and you question my right? My responsibility to this family is everything. I have killed for this family and you! You question me!" She yelled, rising to her feet as Liam shrank back into his seat. "What sort of protection are you taking with you?" Jensen's voice softened as she sat back down and looked over at Russell.

"Just the usual." He shrugged, eyes still wide from her outburst. He pulled out a ten-inch skinny blade with a serrated edge towards the hilt.

"That's it?" Jensen asked after picking it up and twirling it around in her hand for a moment, ignoring the sting of her ripped stitches. "A pig sticker?" She barely hid the snort.

"It's better than that cannon you keep under your belt." He laughed as she mocked offense. "Seriously, I'm ripping off ATMs I don't need to worry that much."

"Alright. Cate will stay here and watch Leo and Hank " Jensen declared with a final nod.

"Wait no! I had plans! I was -" She stopped as she saw Jensen's face. "Never mind, I'll watch Leo." Her hands dropped in her lap.

"Great that means you are on meals this week." Jensen smiled as she handed over a larger stack of money. "Mac and cheese and fish sticks only count as a meal twice. I'll be home by seven, Russell, try to make it home by then. Liam, you're a big boy, if you want to come home for dinner be here by seven." Her words were cold as she turned to him. "I think that's it then, unless anyone has anything they need to tell the family."

"What about you?" Russell asked finally just as Jensen thought she was home free. "Why were you late?"

She couldn't suppress the groan in brought to her lips. Just thinking about what she did was hard enough. Usually she would be the first to argue that honesty was the best policy but in this case she felt that she could make an exception.

"You guys remember that man, Tom? He showed more than a healthy interest in Cate?" She paused looking at their nods. "Cate told me that he was the one that gave her a ride home. I went to talk to him, remind him to stay away from thirteen-year-old girls. I convinced him that it would be in his best interest to leave town for a while. We won't see him again."

"Should we be expecting a call from the cops soon?" Liam asked with slightly more respect than he had shown earlier.

"It's never out of the question with our family." Jensen tried to smooth talk her way out of the conversation. "Especially after our stunt with the Italian sports car and our past. I'd say were due for a visit but I would doubt anyone's getting arrested." She shrugged as she placed the remainder of the cash in the lockbox and closed the lid. "I'm going to go to bed."

Jensen stood up and grabbed Jax's hand. She led him into her room and pushed hard enough for him to get the idea and sit back on the bed. This time she didn't dawdle as she pulled off her shirt before almost attacking him, her legs straddling his lap. Their kisses became heated and sloppy as Jensen tugged on Jax's clothing.

"What I'm about to do," She paused to pull his shirt over his head. "It's very selfish." She knelt in between his legs and undid his belt buckle. "I'm going to take, and really I'm not going to care about giving back." Her voice was no louder than a whisper. "After the day I've had, this isn't about you. This is the one thing I'm taking as mine." She reached her hand into his boxers and tugged on him firmly, pleased by his reaction.

Jensen practically tore off her pants as she stood up. She pushed Jax further onto the bed and crawled onto of him. His hands had moved up to cup at her still restrained chest but she pushed his arms up over his head.

"Be a good boy." She smiled as her hands released her bra and she flung it over into the corner. She could hear his grunt as she moved her hips in small circles pressing herself into him, teasing slightly with every intention of following through. "In theory." She started as her hands started moving up her own body, resting on her breasts and palming them slightly. "I could do this without you." She moved her hips as she continued tracing patterns around the sensitive flesh around her nipples with both hands. "In fact," she paused, watching his eyes as one of her hands left her chest and made a path down her stomach stopping only just when she felt the lace of her panties. "I might." Her fingers dipped below her panty line and she let out a low moan.

"I think we have a few things we need to learn about each other." Jax muttered, his hands reaching up and grabbing Jensen's hands. "First, I'm not a good boy." He whispered with a half smirk before flipping their positions so now he was on top. "Second, you can't imagine the things I can do to you."

"Do it then." Jensen demanded as she pulled her head away from the unmade bed, she caught her lips with his.

He broke the kiss off suddenly as his hands flipped her over roughly. Jensen barely had time to put her arms out in front of her to support herself. Jax's hands were at her hips, pushing her legs apart slightly. Without warning he slammed into her, causing her to let out a yell of surprise. Under any other circumstance Jensen would have been insulted by his speed, but now it was just what she needed. She pushed back on him, wordlessly demanding he either pick up the pace or let her fingers do the work he can't.

"Jesus Christ!" she muttered as she threw her head back. She felt one of his hands snaking along her hip and down her inner thigh. She shook her head briefly and tore his hand away before placing it back on her hip. "Focus on what you're doing there, Knucklebones." She replaced his hand with her own.

It was a matter of minutes before she felt the coil in her stomach tighten.

"A little bit more, just a little bit more." She repeated mostly to herself, over and over again until there was no more needed. Her arms turned to jelly and her head slumped onto a pile of blankets someone had thrown on the bed earlier. Her whole body would have collapsed if Jax hadn't been holding onto her hips, still thrusting into her before finding his release as well.

Jax collapsed beside her breathing hard and she turned around to face him. It took all the strength she could muster to lift her hand high enough to run along his chest. She pressed several warm kisses onto his collarbone.

"I'm not usually the type to give a lot of complements but that was the best I have had in a long time." Jensen finally declared, letting out a long sigh of contentment.

"We did that one pretty well." Jax agreed as he slung his arm over her head.

"Tom." Jensen finally whispered still looking at Jax's chest. "His – its – name was Tom and I tortured him and I killed him and I buried the body." She stopped to look Jax in the face. "And I don't feel sorry about it at all. I've thought about it a lot. I thought I would cry or feel guilty at the very least, but I don't." She made perfect eye contact with Jax as she said it. "Does that make you think I sound like a danger to you or anyone else?"

"No." Clearly that was the end of his thoughts.

"You aren't much of a talker are you?" Jensen laughed as she finally found the energy to push herself off the bed and search around in the small plastic bag she had gotten from the market for her cigarettes.

"Not much good comes from it." He smirked, propping himself up in his elbow to watch her. He accepted the cigarette she offered him. "Most people don't want to know too much about me. I'm trouble."

"Jax, I am trouble. You are something else entirely. Don't get me wrong it turns me on more that I would call healthy," She flicked the lighter before tossing it over to Jax. "The thrill that the cops could come after us at any moment." She took a puff of her cigarette as she wandered around the room looking for something to do. She was aware she was still naked but couldn't be bothered to put clothes on, especially because she was still rooting for round two. "There is something so powerful about watching the light flicker out of someone's eyes, knowing that it was because of you. I would say there is no greater feeling in the whole world but after what we did," She smiled and let her sentence drop. She casually opened her window and flicked her half smoked cigarette out onto the pavement. "Some day I'm going to ask for the truth, about what you do, about the club. Not now, but soon, I'm gonna need an explanation for my family. Liam's an asshole but he's not wrong, and I don't like lies."

"You lied to your family just now." He reminded her.

"Out of necessity. Most of my family has never killed. Liam is the only one and that was only ever in those stupid fights, self defense really. He never sought anyone out to kill them. Don't dodge my questions."

"You really want to know?"

"I can't see any reason not to tell me. After everything I've done it should have proved to you that I'm on your side. If not, well, you know enough to make me completely useless to a cop." She shrugged as she moved back to the bed, making herself comfortable around him. "Go on, tell me." She encouraged.

"So I can see you run off screaming?"

"Do I look like the type to run off screaming? Honestly I'm a little offended. The only way I plan to be screaming is on this bed, and I can pretty much guarantee I'm not going to be running." She saw his smile as she winked suggestively and pressed her body closer to his.

"Maybe later, after I've heard you scream a little."


	11. Chapter 11

The morning was almost silent. Jensen made enough eggs to feed a small army and brought them around to the others rooms. She knocked briefly before setting the plate on the ground. She finally brought a plate into Jax and sat down on the bed.

"Rise and shine. I have the water of life." She joked as she waved a mug of coffee in front of him. "Seriously, we have to get up. I need to go to work. Your mom is a nice lady but I doubt she's past kicking my ass for being late." She shook his shoulder.

He didn't bother to open his eyes as he grabbed the mug from her hands and propped himself up.

"Just imagine you are going to get up earlier than this when Abel gets home. And you can't just reach for the coffee, because most of the time a beautiful naked woman won't be there to give it to you." At these words Jax's eyes sprang open and roamed her form. "Told you I would cook for you naked." She leant in and pressed a kiss on him in between sips. "Yummy." She whispered as she pulled back.

"Come back to bed." He tugged on her arm slightly. "I'll explain why you are late."

"I actually can't be late because I'm not driving, Liam is and then he's taking the car to Oakland. Besides I need the money, sorry baby, maybe next time." She placed a final kiss on the edge of his mouth before pulling away to get changed.

An hour later everyone was ready to go. Russell climbed into the back seat of the car while Jensen road shotgun.

"We'll follow you to the shop." Jensen explained as she rolled down the window. "Are you sure you don't mind about giving me a ride on your way out of town?"

"Yeah it's not a problem. Look if you want to come with me, it's not a problem. There is supposed to be a little party, we could be back by Wednesday." Jax offered but seemed slightly reluctant.

"Thanks for the invite but, really, I should stay here. You go with my blessing to party hard, just come back. Okay?" She leaned out the window and caught his lips in a passionate kiss.

"Yuck!" She heard Leo exclaim as he barrelled over and knocked into Jax's side. "Stop biting my sister's face!" His hand balled into a fist and repeatedly knocked into Jax's upper thigh.

"Hey, hey! Stop it you little shit-head!" Cate called as she ran up and grabbed Leo back. "He's not biting her, it was a kiss."

"Nuh-uh! That's not a kiss!" Leo was positively screaming.

"It's called a French kiss. It's a part of how people make babies." Cate teased him as she dropped him off a few feet away keeping her voice loud so everyone could hear them.

"Gross! I'm never having babies. The French are gross! Does this mean Jensen's gonna have a baby?"

"No!" Jensen practically shouted with a glare at Cate. "No babies! We have to go, Cate, only use the van in emergencies. We can't afford the gas." Jensen closed her window and watched Jax start the engine on his bike.

They were at the shop in five minutes. She almost stumbled out of the car as Russell monkey climbed into shotgun.

"Be careful." She warned as she walked off with a wave.

Jensen smiled at Gemma as she strolled into the office. They worked quietly for a few hours before Jensen heard her phone ringing in her pocket. She looked down at the Caller ID and smirked.

"International house of Jensen speaking, for English please stay on the line." She chuckled at her own joke.

"Funny." Liam almost panted into the phone. "Could you tell this woman to stop beating me up and let me help her son?"

"You're getting beat up by some old lady? Oh, did nana hurt bid bad Liam?" Jensen kept laughing as she hard the crack of something in the background and screams in Spanish. "Okay, okay, I'm ready I can help. Put me on speaker phone." She demanded before closing her eyes and trying to remember the words for 'gunshot wound'.

"Por favor, señora, mi hermano está tratando de ayudar a su hijo. ¿Me puede decir lo que está mal con él? ¿Está respirando?" She asked in a voice that oozed confidence she didn't have. She figured the most important question was if the poor bastard was even worth saving, was he even breathing?

"Sí, le dispararon!" She cried, her voice cracking as she yelled into the phone.

"Yo entiendo. Un momento por favor. ¿Es su hijo en una pandilla? ¿Es un Maya?" She asked remembering her promise to Jax and the rest of the Sons of Anarchy.

"No!" The woman cried. "Te lo prometo!"

"Liam, take me off the speaker phone." She waited until her brother gave her the okay to talk. "Liam, she will let you help him but you have to check his ink first. She promises he's not a Mayan but I wouldn't trust someone whose son just got shot. Remember the deal we made, don't screw this up. If you see the ink get out. Call him dead, say a prayer and high tail it."

"You've got it." He snapped the phone closed and Jensen let out a long sigh.

"I'm sorry, I meant to tell you that I would be getting a couple calls. I might speak ten languages but Liam was cursed with the inability to master even one." Jensen laughed as she looked over at Gemma. "He's trying to make a few connections in Oakland and it's a bit more diverse than Ohio."

"As long as you keep working and answer the phones here it shouldn't be a problem." Gemma smiled. "I have to admit I thought you are kidding when you said you spoke all those languages."

"Nah! Spanish is easy; it's just like English. Farsi, now that was a trick." Jensen laughed as she remembered the miscommunications she had trying to learn it in the liquor store.

Jensen vaguely heard police sirens pulling up into the lot and went to the window to see what was going on. A young man in a police uniform was questioning Jax with his hands on his hips. An old man in a similar uniform was standing next to him with a reluctant stance. Jensen moved outside to hear the conversation; unaware that she was moving closer and closer even though she knew it would be safer if they didn't see her. She saw the young cop pointing at her.

"She looks like the woman that man said he saw driving his Ferrari." He called over to the older man talking quietly with Clay. He walked over to Jensen. "We found a few smudges in the car that we couldn't identify. What's your name? I haven't seen you around here before." He asked. Jensen saw his hand reach for his gun.

Survival instinct took over as Jensen raised her hands.

"Jag pratar inte engelska!" She called, trying to look petrified. "Jag pratar inte engelska!" She called again, her accent growing stronger and more convincing the longer she talked.

"Unser!" The man called. "Doesn't she look like the picture we got? Keeps jabbering on in some language."

"Jag pratar inte engelska!" she acted like she was pleading. "Jag är laglig! Green Card! Green Card!" She repeated, thinking for a moment that she might be taking this whole thing too far, seeing as she didn't actually have a green card.

"You are going to have to come with us." The old man sighed grabbing her by the arm.

Jensen let out a small whimper in an attempt to seem petrified. She buckled at the knees and pulled at Unser's pants, clear on what it looked like from certain angles. He lifted her off the ground looking around and catching the laughter from everyone watching the scene unfold. Unser strapped a pair of cuffs on her wrists and Jensen had to stop herself from rolling her eyes.

"Ring min bror, Liam!" She called behind her, trying to hide her smirk. She walked across the yard with her head held high. She flung the hair off her shoulder with a flip of her head and heard a spluttering as it landed in the young man's mouth.

The distance to the police station from the repair shop was almost comical. Jensen was convinced that it would have been faster to walk but she didn't want to break the act she had put herself in just to say that. Unser toted her off to a room with a large glass window making up one of the walls. She sighed.

If she played her cards right Liam would come and bail her out, remembering the agreement they had made a few years back. If she got arrested the story was that she was a distant cousin that didn't speak English. She would get out without too many questions and Liam, along with the rest of the family, wouldn't be in risk of being tied to her illegal activities.

The younger officer, Jensen learned to be named Hale, came in to talk to her a couple times but she remained calm. Claiming that she didn't speak any English and that she was legal. The last time he came in she lost her temper.

"Kyss mig i röven!" She called after him as he left the room for the third time. Insulting a police officer, and telling them to kiss her ass, wasn't one of her smarter moves but she figured she got away with it because they couldn't understand her. After an hour she saw Jax yelling at one of the officers before they came into her room and undid the cuffs. Jax stayed in the doorway as he watched, fuming silently before turning to the cop again.

"She doesn't even speak English! Can you imagine how terrifying this must have been?" He demanded with a fire that reminded Jensen she really didn't want to be on his bad side.

"Just what is she doing with your lot? If she's really as innocent as you claim she is." The female officer sneered.

Jensen wanted to interrupt with her own wise-ass comment about sucking good cock but realised in time that it would only get her in more trouble.

"That's her business, come back and arrest her when you have proof that she stole any car." Jax grabbed her arm as she walked forward. "I've convinced them you're a croweater, the least you could do is act like it." He whispered in her ear so that only she could hear.

Jensen rolled her eyes but leaned heavily into Jax and wrapped her arms around his neck. Her eyes poured straight lust at Jax and everyone else clearly caught onto her act. She might have been laying it on a little thick but decided she was having a good time and it wasn't as if the emotions weren't there.

"Home?" She asked as if she really couldn't put together a complete sentence. Her eyes were wide.

"Yeah let's get you home." Jax murmured rolling his eyes slightly at her act.

The two traipsed out and got on the back of his bike. Jensen could no longer hold in the ring of laughter she had held.

"Can you believe they bought that? I suppose I'm lucky you showed up when you did, I didn't remember the words for fingerprints in Swedish." She called to Jax.

"They didn't print you when you first walked in?" He yelled back with disbelief clear in his voice.

"Well I wasn't really arrested." She started yelling but stopped as Jax cut the motor as they arrived back at the shop. "That man only put the cuffs on because he didn't want it to look like I was giving him head in a crowded parking lot. Please tell me someone got a picture." Jensen laughed as she started walking away. She was stopped by Jax's arm on her elbow.

"So that's it?" He asked with a raised eyebrow. "You start yammering in some foreign language and they let you go? Just like that?"

"They didn't have any proof to arrest me on grand larceny, I would doubt they know about the murder yet and even then they still have no proof it was me, and I couldn't talk to them because as far as they were concerned I didn't understand anything." Jensen shrugged. "But I do have you to thank for getting me out so quickly. How can I ever repay you?" She smiled as she cradled the back of his neck again.

"How did you know they wouldn't come back with a translator?" He asked as his arms wrapped around her waist.

"I took a chance that in this Podunk town, no one would recognize the language for at least a few hours. Even when they figured it out they wouldn't have a Swedish translator on hand." She shrugged.

"Risky." His eyebrows furrowed, she felt his hands pull her into him slightly. It was the only indication that he was slightly concerned for her well being.

"I like to live dangerously. But that young one, Hale, he said something interesting about you and your friends."

"And what was that."

"He just thought it was odd that I would choose to associate myself with suspected gun runners. Thought it was extra odd that I would want to associate myself with gun runners that had their warehouse blown up, indicating that they were rather stupid gun runners."

"And what did you tell him?"

"I told him to kiss my ass. I wanted to add that if he called my man stupid I would beat his ass twelve ways to Sunday, but I couldn't figure out how to say that in Swedish. Was he right? Is that what you are doing?"

"Your man, huh?" Jax smirked as his hands dipped lower, cupping under her ass.

Jensen retracted her arms from around his waist and became more of an observer rather than an active participant. Her gaze became harder without completely shutting down. She wasn't surprised just a little disappointed.

"You still don't want to tell me?" Jensen nodded. "Okay." She moved slightly so she was out of his grasp completely. "Did any one end up calling my brother like I asked?"

"No one understood a word you were rambling as you left here." Jax was incredibly aware that she was shutting down.

"Right. I'm going on a drive." She muttered as she shook her head slightly. "Gemma!" She called over to the office and forced a smile. "Do you want to help me clear my head?" She walked into the office. "I can't focus, I hate the cops and I just need to think. Do you mind if I take a look at the cars here for a ride?"

Gemma looked at her skeptically for a minute before nodding her head and smiling.

"We have a vintage mustang Chibs just finished working on." She offered.

Jensen smirked.

"Let's give him something else to work on." Jensen smiled as she walked over to the board where they kept valet copies of keys for the cars they worked on. "God, that one man was a total ass! He kept calling me a lowlife because he thought I couldn't understand him." Jensen grumbled. "But I kept my mouth shut, I didn't say a word, and how does your son thank me? Act's as if I'm the crazy one! I have been honest with him from the get go and he can't even grace me with enough information to properly lie to the police!" She rambled as she moved into the garage. "I'm not an idiot and I refused to be played as one." She waited for Gemma to defend her son but nothing came.

"You're right. I told him last night that he needed to tell you about what he does." Gemma stated as she plopped into the passenger seat.

"You did?" Jensen raised an eyebrow as she pulled out of the garage ignoring Chibs' yells of protest. "I honestly didn't think you would. I thought you would be more of a protect the club at all costs kind of lady."

"I am that kind of lady, I just think that you are too." She looked out of the window. "Am I wrong?"

"I protect my family at all cost. Just like they would do anything to protect me. Your family has done right by me, they have protected my family and for that I'm grateful. If that's even a fraction of the loyalty they show you then I can only hope to be that kind of lady." She smiled before she pressed her foot down on the gas pedal and speeding off of the main drag.

"Where are you headed?" Gemma asked as she braced herself on the dashboard.

"No where, everywhere, I don't really know. I'm just going!" She pushed the needle further before slamming down on the break causing the car to fishtail. She slammed her hands on the wheel. "I get that we don't know each other that well but why the hell can't he trust me with this little bit?" She pressed on the gas again. "I'm not looking for all of his trust, I haven't even given him that yet, but need enough." She almost had to scream over the roar of the engine before she cut it again. "Argh! I was fucking arrested!" She climbed out and began pacing back and forth.

It was as it the car came out of nowhere. A large grey van pulled up next to them, the kind painters use, and a man with a bald head and tattoos stepped out.

"Tell the Sons, the Nords aren't happy. If they want a war we will bring it to them." The man yelled.

"Fuck off shit head!" Jensen yelled as she grabbed in her purse for her gun, pulling it out and releasing the safety. "Get back in your crap car and go fuck yourself all the way to hell!" She yelled, taking aim. Before she could process the action another man appeared from the back of the van and fired a shot at her. The bullet planted itself in her shoulder and she let out a cry before firing a shot of her own. Because the bullet had lodged itself in her left shoulder her aim was off slightly and she missed her target.

The men all climbed back into the van and sped off.

"Motherfucker!" Jensen yelled at the top of her lungs. Fire coursed through her arm as she slapped her hand over the wound, as if covering it up would make it better. "Shit! That bastard did not just shoot me!" She stated in flat denial. "Call Liam!" She yelled over at Gemma and she gripped tighter at her shoulder. Her breathing came out hard and fast and she clenched her jaw to keep from screaming.

Gemma seemed to pounce into action as she moved out of the car and grabbed Jensen's arm. She looked at it for a minute.

"We need to take you to a hospital." She decided, moving over to the car and jumping into the driver's side.

"No, no hospitals! Call Liam, he'll fix me up just fine." Jensen argued, climbing into the car. She let out a hiss as the leather touched her shoulder. "Tell him to meet us at the shop. I'm gonna live, I'm just a moron!" She threw her head back on the seat and let out a low groan that sounded almost animalistic. "Motherfucker!"

Gemma handed her the phone after a moment, it was already queued up with Liam's number.

"You're going to make me tell him?" Jensen groaned but took the phone and pressed the green call button.

"I'm in the middle of something!" Came Liam's bark as she put the phone to her ear. "This had better be important Jen."

"Please tell me you are on the way home." Jensen pleaded as she felt her fingers slip into the hole the gun had created causing her to grunt in pain.

"What's wrong?" His voice became serious as he heard the pain in her voice.

"I – ugh – I was shot." She explained slowly letting out a long breath.

"What? With a gun, you were shot with a gun? Who? Who did it to you? I'm going to kill them!" Liam yelled.

"Just wait until you get here. It's not that bad, I just need you to take care of it. Come home, meet me at the shop." She rushed to finish the call.

"We're on our way, an hour max."

"Take your time! I'm going to live, there is no need for you to break your necks trying to get here." Jensen tried to reason.

"Don't. I'll be there soon." Liam barked and the call ended.

"You didn't tell him who shot you." Gemma stated as Jensen placed the phone back in her purse.

"Yeah, I'm sure I'll never hear the end of it." Jensen tried to roll her eyes but twitched her shoulder slightly causing her to let out another groan. "Fuck! I should have listened to my own rules."

"What's that?" Gemma asked as she parked the car at the garage and walked around to the other side to help Jensen out.

"You don't hold a gun while angry."

"Even when you shoot someone?" Gemma asked, clearly trying to distract her.

"Especially when you are about to shoot someone. That is when you have you be at your most calm." Jensen took a breath and stumbled slightly as they walked over to the grey building she had only ever been in once. "Every life you take, it needs to be justified. Killing for the sake of killing is," She paused to think of the best way to describe it. "It's chaos, it's disorder, well, it's anarchy isn't it?" She smirked as she finally found the right word.

"Would you listen to that? You're just a regular philosopher." Gemma rolled her eyes. "Come on up the steps. They were going to shoot one of us regardless of if you had a gun or not. It's just the way they are."

Jensen felt someone at her injured side on the opposite of Gemma. She looked over and saw Juice looking at her with wide eyes.

"What happened?" He asked in a hushed voice. He tried to find a good place to help hold her up.

"Touch me and loose your hand." Jensen snapped with a glare. Juice held his hands up in surrender. "Sorry." Jensen immediately apologized. "I'm just a little on edge."

"Who did this to you?" He asked as he walked with them into the clubhouse.

"Some guy calling himself a Nord. Ass-hat wanted us to give you some message" She saw his curiosity and pure anger. "They aren't happy and if you want a war they'll bring it." She grunted as she flopped onto the couch. "Holy Mary, Mother of Christ!" She yelled, her shoulder jostling slightly. "Fucking hell! Get me something to drink!" She demanded so loudly that men in the back rooms of the clubhouse came forward to see what the commotion was.

She saw a blond head come towards her and sit down next to her.

"I called Liam he's on his way to patch me up. I just want a damn drink!" She demanded again looking at Juice. "Your friends did this to me." She explained knowing that that was going to be the question everyone was thinking, the crowd dissipating until the only people left were familiar faces. "They wanted to warn you of a turf war. Nice people, really." Her sarcasm was lost as she hissed at someone's prodding.

"I thought you said you knew how to use that thing! Next time you kill them."

"I do! What do you think I was trying to do when they shot me? Honestly a thank you wouldn't be too much to ask for." She grumbled as she accepted a bottle of whiskey and waved away the glass.

She cracked open the bottle and took a large gulp and made a face.

"What is this swill? Fucking Canadian?" She took another gulp before splashing a small amount onto the wound.

"Just what am I thanking you for?" Jax questioned.

"Do you see any body bags?" She might have been overstating a little but was convinced that she had defended a club that hadn't given her any real answers and deserved a thank you at least.

"Chibs, you gonna take a look at this?" Clay called from the corner. "She's bleeding all over the couch," he gestured over at Jensen as he pulled Gemma in tighter to his chest.

"No offence, but did you treat that Glasgow smile all by your lonesome?" Jensen asked as she pointed at the scars. "Because I would really rather my brother was the only one to touch it."

"You know what this is called?" He pointed at his face.

"My grandfather doled out a few of those in his hay day. I only saw him do it once. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of one of those. It's usually saved for some pretty nasty betrayal." She shivered a little as she thought about it.

"I thought they just killed you if you betrayed them." Juice piped in.

"It usually does, this just makes dying a little more painful." Chibs snorted. "But I didn't betray anyone, this was a message." His tone clearly ended the conversation.

"Whatever." Jensen scoffed before turning her attention back to the bottle. She was about to open her mouth to say more when she heard the door slam open.

"Where is she? And where is the bastard that did it? I'm gonna kill him!" She heard Liam yell.

"Shut up Liam! I'm right here! It's fine." Jensen barked.

"Gushing blood is hardly what I call fine." He grumbled as he took a knee next to Jensen. "Where were you?"

"What?" Jax's brow furrowed.

"If you care enough to fuck my sister you better care enough to protect her from trigger happy enemies!" Liam stated in a calm voice he learned from Jensen. He snapped on a clean pair of latex gloves. "Ten bucks says they weren't hers."

"You're only going to put ten bucks on the bet that they weren't my enemies?" She used her uninjured hand to throw a half-assed punch to his arm. "Who do you think I am?" She scolded.

"Al Capone, obviously." A voice from the back of the room called with a chuckle. "With better hair." Russell chuckled. Jensen noticed Liam rustling around in his duffel bag but didn't think anything of it until she felt something cool on her skin next to the gaping hole and the prick of a needle.

"You son of a -" Her words were cut off as her arm twitched and caused a new round of fire to course through her arm. "Did you guys plan that out before you got here?"

"We talked about it on the car ride from Ohio." Russell laughed. "You need drugs Jensen! It's not up for debate."

"It shouldn't be! It's my body and when I say no that means -"

"We distract you and do it anyways?"

"Watch it. The last man that said that to me is six feet under, and missing some very important parts. No means no." She glowered at Russell causing him to shrink back.

"Don't worry. I can introduce you to some girls that never say no." Tig told him with a grin.

"He's thirteen. No prostitutes until he's at least sixteen. Same rules as for Liam." Jensen warned as Liam started cleaning around the wound.

"You had to put an age limit on prostitutes?" Tig asked incredulously.

"We grew up in a shady part of town, seemed the most responsible thing to do." She shrugged. "I was a mother to a nine year old when I was twelve years old. My reasoning skills have improved greatly; unfortunately we have a twisted idea of fairness in this family. Although I realize I am the only one that has ever taken a bullet for this family!"

"Wrong place, wrong time. As always, you are trouble." Liam snorted as he leaned up to get a better angle on the wound. "Jesus Sis! Boy got you good! It's not hitting anything important, at least none that I can tell. It's going to hurt like a bitch for a while but I'll stitch it up and keep it clean."

"Not until I finish my drink." Jensen held up her half drunk bottle.

"Better chug it because I'm starting as soon as I can move you to a hard surface. Can you walk?" He looked her over doubtingly.

"Bastard shot my arm not my leg. Just give me a hand. Where are you thinking? A table?"

"We can put her on the pool table." Jax stated as he picked her up and carried her over to the table before crouching next to her face on the opposite side of Liam. "I'm here, I'm right here." He whispered. Jensen's eyes flickered over to the remaining people in the room before glancing at Gemma and silently begging her for a small favour.

Thankfully Gemma got the message and started ushering everyone else out of the room. Jensen let out long sigh as Liam prepped his tools. As soon as the rest of the room was clear she grabbed Jax's hand partially because she wanted to have something to grab when Liam started his work but mostly because she wanted to make sure he stayed put.

"So do you trust me now? I took a bullet for you and your family but I still haven't run away screaming, I didn't go to the cops, I refused a hospital because I knew they would ask about how I got shot. I deserve to know what the hell I've gotten myself in the middle of." Her voice was low and soft, the way she might speak to a small and frightened child. "Tell me a story to pass the time."

"Fine," His eyes were still soft but they looked as if he was trying to read the answers in her eyes. "Hale was right. We run guns for the Irish Kings. A rival gang blew our storehouse sky high about two weeks ago. Mayans. We found the guns they took from us and took them back but that started a war between us. That's why we were headed out of town, we need reinforcements."

"What about the ones that shot me. Mayans are all well and good, but these guys didn't look like they liked a whole lot of colour."

"Those guys are the Nords, skin head that like meth and want it in Charming. The Sons don't want it, and it sounds like they didn't take the news too well." Jax explained as he squeezed her hand slightly.

"Speaking as the gal that got shot, yeah I'd say they didn't take it very well." She managed a laugh. "So how'd you get into the guns?"

"One of the founding members had a connection. But since the warehouse blew we have been getting into porno."

"Meaning like you started watching a lot? And you haven't invited me? I'm a little offended."

"No, I mean like producing, well more like funding the production." He explained and Jensen rolled her eyes and scrunched her face.

"So I was with you on the guns stuff, it has a bit of integrity in it, but pussy? Really?"

"It's clean, it gets the target off out backs for a while."

"Do you want my opinion?" She waited for Jax to reluctantly nod his head. "I can respect that you don't want to be a part of the game anymore. But just because you step out of the game doesn't mean anyone else is going to see that. Once you are in, you are in, and you might as well be big fish."

"You think?"

"Just one girl's opinion." She shrugged. "But I have fond memories of some of the guys in the IRA so I guess I'm a little biased. Liam you remember that one man? He used to bring us sweets when he came to visit." She smiled at the memory.

"He brought you sweets. He brought me a bb gun. Uncle Jimmy, how could I forget?"

"That was his name! He used to give me sweets and say that girls needed candies to keep them sweet and brothers needed shotguns to keep all the boys away." Jensen smiled at the memory. "I haven't seen him since Granddad died. Haven't seen any of them since Granddad died."

"They will call someday, and want a favour. Just like when we were little. Just like how you glorified it to Cate."

"Are you done yet?" She could hear the tension in Liam's voice rise.

"Yeah, two more stitches and then bed rest."

"Don't be silly, just put me in a sling and let me work through the pain."

"Suit yourself. Die trying to show how strong you are!" Liam's patience suddenly broke.

"Cut out the telenovela crap and do your job." Jensen scowled.

Liam opened his mouth to argue back but Jax cut in.

"What was Uncle Jimmy's last name?" He questioned as his grasp on Jensen's hand increased ten fold.

"O'Phelan, I think. It's been years since I've thought about him. Why do you ask?" Liam broke his glare at Jensen to look at Jax with curiosity.


End file.
